Paranoia's Grasp
by SereneFlames
Summary: Isaac doesn't remember anything and he's trapped in an abnormal mansion, just asking for disaster. Watch as he gets new friends and, piece by piece, solves the mystery to this place.
1. Pesky Drops

The ceiling was covered in melting ice. The floor was hard and rough.

A cold breeze ruffled the man's short, wavy hair, rousing him from his harsh sleep. He stood up, shivering at the chilling gust blowing through his house. However, he then looked around, and noticed this was not at all his house. Everything was bleak and dismal; iron bars allowed the stirring winds to enter, the room, or what he considered a cell, was dark and depressing, and no colors showed themselves.

The man couldn't remember anything. Not his name, not his friends, nothing. However, he saw a small red cube on the end of a cord taped onto one of the steel bars. He rubbed his back from the pain he gathered while sleeping on the rough floor and grasped the red cube. It turned out to be a die. He tore it off the copper cord, which then tore the cord off the bar. He collected the tape, cord, and die. Another current of air passed by, blowing his hair back and sending another quiver through his body. He hugged himself for warmth and decided to see if anyone was nearby.

He cleared his throat. "Is anyone there? Hello?" he called, echoes ricocheting off the walls and coming back to his ears. He hoped the echoes would lead to other ears as well.

No one answered. He assumed no one else was awake, but he had a strong, determined feeling that there was at least one person nearby. For now, though, he had to settle with the fact that no one was awake yet, and so he lay down and fell into another unpleasant sleep.

* * *

The ice thawed some, causing some pesky drops to sprinkle on the man while he was sleeping. He woke up when one fell onto his eyelid and crept down his face. He rose, rubbed his eye, then brushed the rocky fragments off his back. Sounds of tapping could be heard reflecting off the walls, and he embraced the idea that it was a person. When he was just about to call again for another human being, he heard a voice. "Aha!" it said. He could tell it was a man.

"Hello?" he asked. He yearned the idea of which he was excited because he discovered a way out.

"Hmm? Is someone out there?" the man said. "Finally, another person shows their existence." He chuckled.

Although he thought he was pretty funny, the first man didn't feel like showing it. He was more concerned about escaping. "Are you going to escape? If you are, could you help me out, too, please?"

"Sure. I'm not going alone, after all." A large clang shook the first man. As he waited, he rolled the dice just to wither his boredom a little.

After waiting a minute or two, his bar also came down with a clash. He gladly walked out and shook the lockpicker's hand. The lockpicker had a full, generous grin on his face, and his hair was long and loose. "What do you say we just walk out and explore?"

"Sure," the first man said.

"We should give ourselves names, first," the lockpicker suggested. "I'll let you decide on yours first. I'm a patient man."

The first man rubbed his chin, then sat down. A lot of ideas and thoughts came to his head, but he needed something that fit. He needed a name that would be loyal to its person. He needed a name that would be glad to follow him, and that he would be glad to follow. Finally, he came with a perfect name.

"You can call me Isaac."

* * *

 **This first chapter is pretty short, and probably a bit boring, I know. But don't worry, they're going to get longer and gradually better.**

 **Any comments, complaints, concerns you have I would like to see in the form of a review and/or a PM. Thanks for reading and I'll see you in my next chapter (I'll upload around every 3 days).**

 **Also, if someone would be kind enough to make me a half-decent cover image, I would love that. This one right now won't do. :/**

 **\- SF**


	2. False Hope is Hope

Isaac's new friend called himself Cain. Afterwards, they set off for exploration.

Isaac was determined to make a good first impression on Cain, but there wasn't much to discuss. He still went for it the best he could.

"What was attached to your copper cord?" Isaac queried.

Cain smiled. "It's this boot," he said, lifting his foot up. "It's warm and leathery, but most of all, it feels lucky."

"I found a die," Isaac sighed, somewhat disappointed. "It doesn't seem to useful, but I guess it's good when I'm bored."

"I'm sure you'll find a use of it," Cain reassured. "As far as we know, there isn't much that couldn't happen. That die could be life or death." A drop of water from the melty ceiling splashed on his arm, and he shook it off, then stated, "It's cold out here, but the ceilings are still melting. It doesn't make sense."

"Maybe it's deliberate," Isaac replied. "They could be doing that just to slow us down, even if just a small bit."

Isaac looked at Cain's face, and he looked a bit confused. "'They'? Who's 'they'?"

He noticed the mistake he made, but knew how to back it up to not be embarrassed. "I don't know, but it seems deliberate, and if it's deliberate, then someone did it."

"Or some _thing,_ " Cain suggested, then shuddered at the thought. _If it's deliberate, then they're going to keep us back worse ways than just melting ice,_ Isaac thought. _I'll rely on Cain, though. We're gonna get through this together._

Suddenly the floor shook slightly, yet violently. Then again, this time stronger. "What's that?" Isaac asked worriedly.

"Whatever it is, we need to get away from it," Cain considered. "It's not going to be a giant happy face with a party hat."

"Well, where should we go?" Isaac inquired, but the quakes were getting louder and it was hard to hear. "We should run back," Isaac suggested, trying to stay as calm as possible. It wasn't easy at all.

They both started to sweat, and when they saw a giant figure from afar coming towards them, they bolted the opposite direction. "Sprint as fast as you can!" Isaac yelled, hoping Cain could hear him. He couldn't even pick up what he was thinking, but he said the obvious, so it didn't matter too much. What mattered was getting away from the thing and hope it doesn't follow them to something like a dead end.

Eventually they began to run out of breath, but Isaac kept pushing on as much as he could. Cain, on the other hand, lost all energy and collapsed. He wailed for help, but it was to no use. Isaac would most likely die if he got close, and he wouldn't be able to help Cain much. Cain could help himself more than Isaac could. However, Isaac still ran back, simply because of the fact that the little help is still something.

The monster at long last found its next meal. He wanted to enjoy it as much as he could, and knew it wouldn't be hard considering the meal was already nearly defenseless, and the other had nothing that could hurt him at all. He took hold of Cain, who yelled louder, still to no use. There isn't much that couldn't happen, Isaac thought courageously, and did the one most craziest yet possibly most effective thing he could do. He threw his die at the monster and hoped for the best.

What happened next was perhaps the most unexpected of the unexpected. The die landed on a 6, and sucked in the monster slowly by its foot. The monster was confused and hungry, but, analyzing its situation, it wouldn't get food any time soon, so it just wanted to do whatever messed them up. He smashed Cain to the ground and, just as he was about to be whisked away inside the die, he threw him to the wall. Right then and there, it ended. The monster entered the die and the die transformed it and spat it out into a bird. It flew away and left the pair to deal with whatever happened.

Isaac's first and only thought was to check on Cain. He regained all his energy and dashed to him. _He's fine, he's fine, everything's fine, we'll just teleport out and we'll be fine,_ Isaac thought insanely, then tried to bring himself to the situation. _I need to help in any way I can._

Cain laid on the side of the wall, his one eye closed, his other...not there. What was there before was replaced by blood and the socket. The rest of his body was scratches, cuts, and bruises, but his eye was the worst spot. He needed that patched up immediately.

However, as he was going to tear a part of his clothes to make a temporary patch, he heard fast steps coming his way. It wasn't another monster, but he was cautious and in the middle of something serious, so he turned around quickly to see what it was.

His mouth gaped. She was beautiful. She had long, bouncy curls of blonde hair and a swift yet graceful stride towards him and his injured friend. Her piercing blue eyes were like the full moons at twilight, right in the middle of the sky and shining light on everything. But then he remembered about his friend and he shook his head, focusing on the problem. She approached with some materials and a giant plush heart. _That heart must have been what she got in her cell,_ he thought. _It looks like it would help._

They immediately went to work. Isaac really wanted to talk to her, but he knew his priorities. She had no materials to help his eye, so he tore off the bottom portion of his shirt and made a makeshift eyepatch.

As he was about to put it on, Cain awoke. "...Ugh..." he sighed, then pulled in a deep breath. "Will I be fine? ...Isaac, please...tell me I'll be fine..."

Isaac hid his face. He tried to act determined and hopeful, but on the inside he was anxious and desperate. He forced out words that would make him feel well. "You'll be fine. It's very likely you'll be fine in the next day or so, even." He didn't know that for sure, but even false hope is hope.

Cain put on a strained smile, then passed out again.

He put on the eyepatch. The woman used her materials to help the more quantified yet more minor wounds. Once they were done, Cain's body seemed half bandage, half human.

Isaac groaned and laid down. He's had enough for one day—escaping from what seemed like a prison just for his friend to end up what seemed like a mummy. At least he was alive, that's all the good news he could consider unchangeably true.

The woman wiped her arm across her forehead, then sighed and sat beside Isaac. "Are you okay? What happened?" she questioned.

Isaac noticed he'd been holding his breath most of the time. He exhaled slowly and tiredly, then proceeded: "Cain and I got out of our cells and decided to go explore, but then we saw that monster that—"

"Monster?" the woman repeated, shocked. She seemed bothered and worried. "Did it get you at all? I'd be fine to patch you up, too."

"No, I'm fine, at least physically," he replied, "but mentally? I'll need a lot of sleep to heal _that_ up."

* * *

 **First (and likely only) ship already been solidified. Give me all the hate, I'll be fine with it. lel.**

 **Again, if someone would like to send me a new cover image, I would love that.**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	3. Actually Very Fortunate

The whole group rested beside Cain. Finally Isaac and the woman woke up, but they let Cain continue his slumber.

"By the way, what's your name?" Isaac queried. "I never got to ask."

"I don't remember," she admitted. "How did you remember yours?"

"We didn't, we just made our own," he replied. "You can make your own name too, if you want. We need names so we know who we're talking to."

He could tell her name was important to her, because she showed more signs of hard thinking than him and Cain did. She would scratch her head, she would put her jaw on her hand, she would rub her chin, and at last she came up with the name. Before she revealed her new name, she put out a small giggle. "Magdalene, or Maggy for short," she presented. Maggy was undoubtably happy about her new name.

Isaac enjoyed it, too, but then his stomach rumbled and he realized he hasn't eaten for a day. He didn't drink anything either, and he suddenly felt a low pain in his stomach.

"Food and water should be our top priority today," he noted. "It's only partially a joke. It's still essential for us to live."

Maggy chuckled, although she had something to say about it. "And how will we do that? More than two people need to go, and we can't leave Cain here."

Isaac had a mental battle going on. Cain can't walk with them, but he could be carried. He seemed somewhat heavy though, and if anything bad were to happen, Cain would surely be hurt more from it. He's close enough to dead that he decided not to risk it.

"Okay, but after he's recovered enough, we'll need to go," Isaac instructed. "If he recovers fast enough, no one will die, but...if he doesn't, either he dies or we all die."

Isaac turned his gaze to her, trying to read her emotions. It was fairly easy; she knew he was right, but she wanted it to be wrong. _Sorry, Maggy, but you'll understand, I promise,_ he silently assured her. They returned to Cain, and, as they approached, he began to awaken.

He tried to stretch his limbs, but then he retracted them and moaned. "You're fine, Cain," he comforted. "This is Maggy." He moved out of the way for Cain's one eye to look at her. "She helped me patch you up."

"It's no problem, honestly," Maggy promised happily. She took on a big smile and tried to make Cain as happy as she could. It evidently worked, because Cain also put on a grin, but then he sighed sadly. "Am I just a drag to the team now?"

Isaac sat beside Maggy. "You'll be back to normal in no time," he vowed. "And, as in normal, I mean a great person who cheers us up and has a big, loving heart." He poked Cain's chest playfully and sat back. Cain closed his eye and exhaled loudly, then fell to sleep.

Suddenly Isaac remembered something. "Just a second, Maggy," he asserted. "I forgot something."

"So did I," Maggy replied. "I didn't get to finish my questions." She smiled smugly yet blissfully.

"I forgot something during the battle I had with that little monster," he pointed out, grabbing the red die on the ground.

"It didn't sound like he was that little," Maggy joked.

He brought the die over. "He definitely wasn't," he agreed, then showed her the die. "This die has neat powers, but I don't know them well yet," he explained. "I defeated the monster by rolling a 6. It sucked him in and turned him into a bird. But, for some reason, when there's no threats, it rolls like a normal die." He rolled it towards Maggy, getting a 4.

"I guess it has a mind like it's owner," she said, rolling it back to Isaac. "Whatever threatens them is the die's target." It rolled into a 1. "I guess I don't have great luck with the die. Oh well." She shrugged.

"Hey, guys, look!" a voice suddenly burst out happily. They all looked to Cain, who was standing up, yet only on one foot, gladly. "My lucky boot protected my right foot from any harm! I can stand on this foot now."

Isaac clapped in joy, and Maggy put her hands up. "Yay!" Maggy yelled. "Now we can get food and water!"

That only reminded Isaac of his stomach pains. However, it gave him hope to get rid of the pains. "We should go real soon, team," Isaac stated. "We're all hungry, we're all thirsty, and the more we wait, the less strength we'll have when we need to go."

They all went out for food very quickly. They were at the point where they still had energy to get food, but craved for it as if they were starved.

"Where would we find food here, though?" Cain asked as he hopped along on his boot.

"I'm not sure, but that's why—guys, look!" he gawked. A giant stone laid in the middle of the hallway, and on the top was a chest. "The chest must be valuable," he said, calming down and trying to act serious. "Cain, this is dangerous. Stay right in that hole in the stone. We'll come back with everything we find."

"Yes, sir," Cain obeyed, and sat in a small den in the boulder.

Isaac and Maggy prepared to climb the giant rock. "That chest could be our life," he explained. "Anything could be our life. So we have to try our hardest. Are you ready?"

Maggy nodded, then chuckled. "You're a perfect leader, Isaac," she rated as sincerely as possible.

Isaac tried to hide his blushing. "Let's start climbing."

Footholds and handholds were plentiful on the rock, but some were pointy and they had to pay attention to the rocks they grabbed.

One of Isaac's footholds broke and he almost slipped off, then as he fell down a bit he cut his wrist on the handhold. He attempted to ignore the pain; he needed that chest.

Him and Maggy soon made it to the top. Isaac covered his wound with his other arm and pretended not to notice it as they opened the chest and they peeked inside.

They both noticed the only things in the chest were sacks, which was actually very fortunate. "We'll open these down below the rock," Isaac decided. "Because the rock will be our new home."

* * *

 **Okay, forget what I said about uploading every 3 days because it's been going on every day instead. I don't want to wait 3 days. :/**

 **Anyway, if anyone would like to review or PM me to a cover image they made _and that I can use without violating the site guidelines_ , please feel welcome. I want to replace this one ASAP. It's terrible. ._.**

 **Thanks for reading. Any comments, concerns, or complaints, review or PM, and, if you enjoy, you're free to drag your mouse to the Favorite and Follow buttons. :)**

 **\- SF**


	4. Velvet Heart

Isaac and Maggy slowly and delicately came back down the giant boulder. Once they came back down, they proceeded to the den where Cain happily settled in.

When they arrived at the den, it seemed bigger than a den, albeit smaller than a cave. It was perfect and they all had enough space inside.

Once they were stretched and cozy, the trio opened the first sack. It contained a considerable amount of yarn and needles. _If it gets any colder, it could help a lot,_ Isaac considered. _Even if not, someone could use it as a hobby._

Maggy seemed like the type who would like threading. He could tell because, as they drew it out, she smiled.

The next sack, slightly larger than the first, contained a few cards of which they've never seen before, or at least don't remember seeing, and a large number of nails. _I'm not sure what the cards do,_ Isaac thought, _but they could be useful once we do know. The nails would be a little less unlikely to be as useful as the cards, but they could do something._

The third sack, which was the smallest, consisted of different kinds of foods, but not very many of each, and not much variety. _It's the only thing we're sure how to use, and it's the only thing immediately helpful,_ he reasoned. _We're going to be conservative and cautious when we eat, though, because it could be poisonous._

The second-last, or the fourth, sack was the largest. As they opened it, a puff of dust erupted from the top, and they turned their heads away and waited for it to dissipate. Finally they looked inside to see a bunch of rusted, bent steel, painted in dust. _It's not enough for shelter, but, seeing as it's twisted so easily, I can see it being used as weaponry_ , he inferred. _As long as we don't hurt ourselves on it—we don't want to deal with the infections and the cuts._

The last sack, as big as the second, contained a full water jug, _which again, could be poisoned,_ Isaac speculated, _but not for sure,_ and a few more pieces of food, which his thoughts to were self-explanatory.

"Excellent, now we have everything we asked for," Maggy hummed emphatically, then was just about to slip a piece of cheese into her mouth when Isaac stopped her. Cain and Maggy both looked puzzled.

"I know you guys want to eat right away," he began, "but for all we know, this food is poisoned. One of us should take just one small bite to see if it tastes normal, and we'll do that with every food we eat."

They all saw the truth in that, but then became anxious. Isaac noticed why. "But we don't remember what it tastes like," Maggy argued.

Isaac paused, then came to a conclusion. "If it tastes sharp and gives you a bad feeling, just don't eat it. If it doesn't look like it normally does, don't take any bites at all."

Everyone studied each piece of food they had, before deciding they all seemed normal. They all took taste tests, and only a few pieces of food seemed bad—worryingly, Maggy was the victim of all the bad foods.

After they all ate the healthy, untainted food, they relaxed. Besides Cain's eye being torn out and the fact that they still had only a meager idea of what this place has in hold for them, everything was going well.

Suddenly Maggy whined quietly. Cain didn't hear it, as he was dormant, but Isaac did, and he twisted towards her, inching closer. "Are the sour foods getting to you?"

Maggy attempted to relax, but felt her stomach churning. "Yeah, they sure are," she replied, then put her hands over her gut. "I'll be okay after a bit." Her stomach stirred harder, and she moaned. "Maybe it's worse than I thought."

Isaac pondered the situation. This definitely won't be fatal, but it won't be fun. _I'll try to find something to cure it,_ he resolved. _It'll hold us back if we don't._

First, he glanced around to see if there was anything to keep her mind off her ache, then he recalled the yarn and needle. She could try to learn how to thread while he went off to find something to cure her.

Just as he was about to exit the cave, he saw the velvet heart she had with her. That would be a big help, most likely.

He jogged back to Maggy. "What does your heart do?"

"I'm not sure, but...wait...is it okay if I wake Cain and ask?"

Isaac nodded, and Maggy shook Cain lightly. He slowly opened his one eye, and spun it towards Maggy. "Yeah? What's the matter?" he requested.

"When I gave you my plushy heart, what happened?" she asked back.

He tried to remember, then he put his index finger up and smiled. "It cured my pains. The scratches and bruises are still there, but the pain is gone."

Maggy beamed. That's exactly what she needed, so she hugged the heart to her chest and waited. The discomfort slowly withered away and she loosened up. Cain went back to his sleep, and Maggy joined him. Isaac noticed that he was tired, too, so he ate some of the healthy food, drank some water, and fell to sleep.

* * *

Isaac gradually opened his eyes and realized he was shivering like crazy. He put his arms around himself and stood up. He was just outside the cave, which was half covered with a stone wall. Cain was sleeping beside him, but Maggy was nowhere to be seen.

He gasped and looked over the stone gate, then noticed that the cave was half full of water. He also examined Maggy splash up through the water, who looked straight at him. Luckily for Isaac, she was fully clothed. He didn't want to see anything... _weird,_ considering everything is weird enough as it is. "Come on in, Isaac. It's a pool!"

Isaac gazed at her astonishingly. "How did all this water get in here?" he queried.

"I woke in the middle of the night because I felt water at my waist, and I saw a crack in the wall that was pouring it out into the cave, so I created a little pool out of it. Now come in, you need to be cleaned." She giggled.

He grinned and jumped right into the pool. He floated peacefully in the water and closed his eyes. Suddenly he felt a push at his back, and Maggy propelled him up into the air and back into the water.

He rose back up, coughed up a little water, then marveled at her. "I never knew you were that strong, Maggy!"

She shrugged. "Me neither. I never knew you could float."

She had a point. They didn't remember, but they had instincts, and, as far as they've gotten, those instincts have been true. They had fun in the pool for what felt like days.

* * *

 **I'm hoping you enjoy the fan fiction so far because I'm enjoying making and posting each chapter. :)**

 **Thanks for reading. If you're liking it, a follow and/or a favorite would be nice, and any comments, concerns, or complaints should be shown in a review or a PM. If anyone would make and send me a picture _that is viable to use with the guidelines,_ I'd like that a lot, because the current one won't do at all.**

 **Good day. :D**


	5. First Impression

Maggy and Isaac came out of the pool shivering just as Cain was waking up. They couldn't find anything to dry off with, so they came over to Cain instead of looking harder for something to dry off with.

Cain opened his eye slowly, then his eye went large and he seemed shocked. "Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah, we're f-fine," Isaac responded.

"We just w-went into t-the water," Maggy added.

Cain's eye went back to normal size. "What water?"

"We'll t-tell you later once w-we've w-warmed up," Isaac promised.

Cain saw Maggy whisper to Isaac, but he didn't know what they were discussing. Then Isaac nodded and walked over to the other side of the stone. Maggy sat down, and about a minute later, Isaac came back with a sack with a nail stuck in it. _I guess the number of nails is the number we opened the sacks in,_ Cain inferred. _At least we found use of them._

Isaac stood in front of Maggy and cascaded the yarn on her, smiling. She waved her arms and laughed, then bundled herself in some of the yarn and pulled her comfy heart towards her. Isaac took the rest and covered himself in it, too. _They're just warming themselves up,_ he realized.

Suddenly a large wave of wind brushed towards them, and they all shivered. More and more gusts began to come, and they all packed together and spread the yarn among the whole trio.

"W-what's t-that wind f-for?" Isaac complained.

Then the cold breezes were erratically replaced by waves of heat, then the air became still. Nothing moved, and no noises were made.

Then quick footsteps approached and the trio stood up. Isaac brushed off the yarn, then came to meet the newcomer. "Hello. Is something wrong?"

The new man slowed down, and, once he reached a stop, leaned over and panted. He had small, brown hair that covered his scalp, but was so small it wasn't blown by the wind. "You all need to run," he breathed. Again, hot and cold winds came through, although stronger. "Run fast." He collapsed.

Maggy put her hand over her mouth, Cain looked at Isaac, and Isaac stood still. He quickly decided to carry the man with them over the rock. "Guys, we're going over the rock," he declared as the gale strengthened.

"But how?" Maggy yelled over the strong air.

"We're going to carry him," he stated, then added, "Cain, we can't really help you out. Try the best you can to not get hurt."

"It's fine, guys, I can use my limbs now, just not put too much pressure on them," he told.

Isaac was glad to hear that, but this was no time to celebrate. The winds were now so strong that the rock began to wither away, so they went across it as fast as they could, knowing that the rock would protect them from the blasts of air.

Once they got across safely, they ran across the hall to unknown territory, then, as they rounded a corner, they stopped and took in as much oxygen as they could before they launched further across the corridor.

* * *

They had finally escaped the strong winds. They were far away from camp, and they left the sacks, so they all decided to get them later. For now, though, they needed to know this man.

Maggy and Cain stood behind Isaac as he shook the stranger, trying to wake him up. Soon he rubbed his eyes and looked up at the three different people.

"...Thanks," is all he said, then he looked back down.

Isaac sighed. He had a bad feeling about this new man; he just knew he would be the troublemaker. "Are you okay?"

He looked at his clothing and so did the three friends. It was torn and ragged, whipped by the squall. However, apart from a few cuts and exhaustion, his physical state was fine. He said nothing, though.

Next, his eyes opened wide and he stared at the way he came. "Oh no..."

That only worried them more. "What is it?" Isaac demanded fearfully.

"My book!"

Maggy and Cain sighed; Isaac glared at the foreigner.

The foreigner noticed Isaac's annoyed frown and gave him a scowl. Isaac rolled his eyes, then broke the silence: "What book?" He tried to say it as nice as possible; he wanted to keep a positive first impression.

"It's my journal, and it came with a pencil," he explained. "I use it as a diary; I need it." His expression challenged Isaac to argue.

Isaac was going to enter the trap, but he dragged himself out of it and sighed. "We'll find it—later. Now, though, we need to share information. I'm Isaac, this is Maggy, and this is Cain." He pointed at each person as he spoke their names. Maggy smiled, and Cain waved.

The stranger examined each one, then made an obviously forced smile. _At least he's trying,_ Isaac reasoned. _We're all going to have to get used to him though._

"I'm Judas," he introduced. _He also seems pretty smart; at least, smart enough to make his own name._

Isaac reminded himself that he needed to know everything Judas did. "First of all, do you know anything before you came here, and second, do you know what caused those winds?"

"I don't know anything before I came here," he began. "And it was caused by a trap. I stepped on it and it brought up winds."

With one sentence entered a hundred worries. They had never activated a trap. How many traps are in here? Hopefully not that much, but surely not just one. He would trigger one someday, and it would ruin him. He might even die. Just by taking one reckless step, he could make sure he never walked into another again, because he wouldn't be able to. He shuddered at the thought of being caught by a bait; so did the other two.

 _Back to the questions._ "How many traps have you seen?" Isaac questioned.

"Just that one," Judas answered. "It looked pretty ancient. It was made out of the same stone this place is made out of, but it was carved into three faces climbed onto each other. It was surely manmade."

"How long do you think it would be blowing wind for?" Isaac pressed.

"Not too long, maybe a half hour or so. Considering the wind pressure and the likely capacity of it, I can only assume it would last that long." He paused. "On another note, have you been taking night shifts when you go to sleep?"

"No, what are those?" Isaac questioned.

"Well, we stay up for...seeing how many people, 2 hours each night. We take turns doing that to make sure we stay secure when we sleep."

 _Wow,_ Isaac marveled. _Maybe we won't like his attitude, but he'll definitely be useful._

"That's a great idea," he agreed just as he yawned. "And we'll be starting it now. Who'll take the first shift?"

"I will," Cain volunteered, and stood up with a determined but smiling face.

Maggy yawned after Isaac did, and then the other two. "Good night," Isaac blessed.

"It would be neat if we could actually determine if it was night or day," Maggy quipped amusingly, but tiredly. Then she made no noise, and neither did Judas. _We'll be fine,_ Isaac assured himself as he closed his eyes.

* * *

 **First of all, this story is so far a seemingly good success, especially yesterday. Once Chapter 4 came out, the story had twice as many views and visitors, it got its first reviews and follower/favorite (thanks Booker Dewitt and Crystal Wolfblade respectively), and I'd like to thank everyone for that. I'm proud. :)**

 **Second of all, if you haven't noticed, this story is inspired by MLP Mike and his story, The Last Will, so I just wanted to make a shoutout to him and, if you've been reading my story, you should read his too. (It's better than mine by 100x :D)**

 **Lastly, as always, if anyone would like to send me a better cover image I could use for the story _within the website's guidelines,_ please do. I would be very pleased if you did. And, if you like the story, a favorite/follow is suggested, and finally, if you have any comments, concerns, or complaints, show it in a review or a PM.**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	6. Instincts

Isaac opened his eyes. Everything was dark, but he was glowing.

 _What's going on?_

He saw his 3 other friends. They were all perfectly fine, but no one was taking their shift. They were also glowing.

The glows gradually faded, and as they faded alongside the light, they grew harder to see and bloodied. Right before they had disappeared, they open their eyes and made a silent scream.

He gaped, then he started disappearing too, but he was also being ripped apart. The pain was unbearable; he wanted to kill himself instantly, but he couldn't move.

Finally he disappeared completely, and the pain was gone. However, he was still there—just as a soul. A ghost. Nothing.

The earth began to shake, but he didn't care. He was dead. He would never see his friends again. However, his soul began disappearing, and he could do nothing to keep himself from turning into a memory lost in a sea of them.

Isaac woke up.

"Isaac, please!" He heard sobbing. Someone was shaking him.

He turned towards Maggy's voice. She was tearing up. "I was—we were—then we—"

He put his finger on her lips and she calmed down. "It's fine," he reassured. "Just a nightmare. I had one too." He hoped it wouldn't get any worse. He wouldn't be able to deal with nightmare after nightmare after nightmare...

Maggy kissed him on the cheek.

Isaac's eyes expanded. His cheeks flushed. "Um...I...well...thanks," he stammered, looking at her with astonishment.

She was also shocked and blushing. "Err...instinct," she explained quickly, then laid back down.

He sought sleep, but he couldn't get anything out of his mind. The nightmare, the risks, the paranoia...the kiss.

"By the way, uh..." Maggy continued, "it's your turn for night watch."

 _Great._

* * *

Isaac woke up again. He had done his shift, yet it was rough—about two and a half hours of troubled thoughts and mixed feelings, but finally his shift ended, and so did the rest. He arose with an expression of anxiety, which everyone else immediately realized.

"What's the matter?" Cain quizzed. "Something on your mind?"

"Apparently so," Judas guessed, investigating his face.

"What is it?" Maggy interrogated, but had a face more like _if you tell them, you're dead._

Isaac easily got that message. "I have a lot of things on my mind, that's all. And I had a nightmare."

Judas nodded, and Cain joked, "I'd _like_ to ride a mare in the night," but Maggy didn't do anything. _I'm just as embarrassed as you are, but it's just going to be suspicious if we don't act like normal._

It's almost like he said the thought aloud, because Maggy responded with "Don't worry, we're all going to have nightmares from time to time." Then she put on a cheerful face.

He regained his confidence and took a deep breath. "We're going to get everything we left behind, including Judas' journal. Do you remember where it is?"

"Unquestionably," he replied, and they all set off.

As they started their backtracking, it was silent. Then finally Judas spoke up. "Cain, what happened to make you get all these bandages?"

Cain's face instantly went dark. "I don't really like to talk about it," he admitted. _That's the least joyful expression I've ever seen him in,_ Isaac observed. _On the other hand, nothing good has really happened. The worst happened a few days ago—but Cain was the victim. On another note, I'm surprised Judas was the first to talk._

Isaac kept the conversation going. "The journal is what you found in your cell, right, Judas?"

He nodded. "Do you know what's so special about it yet?" Isaac pressed.

"Well, I'm not sure if this is 'special', but as long as I'm writing in it I feel relieved of anything in my mind. I'm sure that's a typical characteristic of a diary, though."

Isaac glanced at Maggy, then back to Judas. "Does it relieve you of your mind, or your pains too?"

"Just my mind," he claimed. He was just as obsessed with his journal as Cain was his boot.

"Have you seen anyone else besides us?" Maggy inquired.

"No," Judas replied quickly. Maggy read his face questionably. _He did say that rather skeptically. He's hiding something._ Isaac then analyzed the situation. _He could just be sensitive about it for whatever reason.._

Everyone chose to be silent. Most of anything they say ends up bringing up feelings they don't want to create.

They finally came across their old home. "Welcome, Judas, to our home," Cain introduced. He was always appreciative and honored when it came to talking about the stone.

Judas didn't see it as any kind of dwelling; he only saw the hunk of rock. "What makes you so dignified about living atop a boulder?" he requested, reading all the specifics on their 'home', still not seeing what was unique.

"We don't live on top of it," Isaac corrected. "We live among one of the sides. It'll look better once you really observe it."

The group climbed over the left side to find everything as it was before. When Judas saw the portion that was truly their shelter, he felt more comfortable. It implied more safety than the rest of the rock ever would.

The small cave was still a large fraction full of water, the curve of rubble sticking out of the side acted like an area they would sleep, and the area between was alike to a living room.

"If this is natural, it's splendid," Judas evaluated. "I could help make some improvements, though."

"Well, first, we'll have to find your book," Isaac reminded. "Not only will it help you, it will also help us."

"We should bring the bags, right?" Maggy suggested.

"Sure," he agreed, and they all carried their supplies with them.

"I think we need a food and water break," Cain added.

"You have food and water?" Judas asked curiously.

"Yeah, we do," Isaac insisted. "Now, let's eat."

They all ate happily and calmly, except for Judas, who dug his teeth in savagely. _I guess he hasn't eaten since he's come here._

Maggy narrowed his eyes at the brute. "What?" he asked, although it came out highly muffled and suppressed.

"I'm not sure, just thinking about something...what is it... _manners?_ " she retaliated sarcastically. Judas simply ignored her and worked back towards eating.

They finished their food, so they drank their water, and they continued their journey to the book.

* * *

 **Hooray! Before I say anything, thank you guys so much for 100 views! In my opinion, that's a great milestone. Let's keep on going! :D**

 **Thanks to Booker Dewitt for reviewing.**

 **Any comments, concerns, or complaints, please send in a review/PM, and, if you enjoy, feel free to favorite and follow. If you would make a better cover image for the story _that is within the site's guidelines,_ please do, and send it in a review/PM. I'd enjoy that very much.**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	7. Past Life

Again, there was uneasy silence. People wanted to talk really badly, but there wasn't much to talk about, and what was left to say was touchy subjects.

Isaac began thinking of the future here. _We've been too lucky thus far,_ he started. _Something wrong has got to happen soon. If I can avoid it, I will—but I have a bad feeling. If we end up being fine, that's great and all, but it doesn't mean more can't happen._

Judas interrupted him from his thoughts. "We're almost at my book."

"That was quicker than I thought," Cain admit. "We left our shelter only about half an hour ago."

He didn't even say it sarcastically. _Half an hour is a short time now, compared to an ordinary life,_ he perceived. _That's unnatural._

The sores and aches they would get were ignorable only because they happened so often. _They shouldn't have to be,_ he argued angrily. _We don't even know why we're here or what to do. I suppose the intensity is kind of fun, but that's incredibly hard to accept. If the intensity just brings more hurt, I don't want it._

"We're here," Judas exclaimed. He turned towards the wall. Leaning on it was the book, and on the cover was etched a black star within a circle.

* * *

The walk home was just as 'quick' as the walk to the journal was. On the way back, Judas wrote in his diary the whole time, Maggy squeezed her comfortable red heart, Cain walked stiffly but heartily, and Isaac tried to soothe his rushing thoughts.

 _Will everything be fine?_

 _If not, what will happen?_

 _The boulder cracks and the water inside it floods us away?_

 _We learn how to use the cards and it just kills us?_

 _We get diseases and die?_

 _It gets too cold or too hot?_

 _We go insane and kill each other?_

At that thought, Isaac quivered. It would be the worst of all, and he could only imagine the terror of...no, he had to stay positive.

 _At least no one noticed me._

As they reached their supposed living room, Judas told them about a blueprint he had written in his book. He explained where everything would go, who would do this and that, so on and so forth, but Isaac's attention was at the hundreds of questions in his head rather than the one truly sensible voice.

Once Judas stopped talking, they all went to work. Isaac remembered everything he said and went to work, albeit only subconsciously.

"Isaac?"

He didn't notice his name being called. He might as well been asleep.

"Isaac, wake up."

He opened his eyes. He _was_ asleep. Cain was leaning over him.

"It's your turn for night shift."

He just stared back at him. _I thought we were working,_ he claimed. "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?" Cain questioned back. "Well, we worked on the base, as Judas now likes to call it, and then we went to sleep. You must have been a zombie or something because you wouldn't talk and you had no expressions."

"I'm sorry, I can't really focus on anything. I have too much going on in my head." Isaac sighed.

"It's okay," Cain assured, then yawned. "I'll let you sleep a bit longer. I'll ask someone else for night shift."

"Good night."

* * *

A small light burned in a chimney above some stones and wood. He sat in a rocking chair, watching a man likely in his 30's or 40's reading a book.

"Whatcha reading, daddy?" he asked.

His 'dad' showed him the book. It was completely gray, and on the cover was a pitch black star inside a circle.

He gasped, then everything went blurry and the earth shook.

Isaac opened his eyes.

"Isaac, it's your shift," Judas told him.

He rubbed his eyes. Judas was holding the book in his left hand, and he was just about to fall back to sleep.

"Wait, I need to tell you something."

He glared at Isaac. "What do you want," he mumbled tiredly.

"I had a dream of my past life."

Judas' gaze stared right at him, demanding him to keep talking.

"I was in a little cabin in a rocking chair in front of a fireplace," he described. "It felt comfortable. Then I turned to a man in another chair and I called him my dad. He was reading a book, I asked himself what it was, and..." He had been holding his breath the whole time. He took in as much breath as he could, then finished. "...and it was your journal. The exact same thing."

Judas kept the same stare at him the whole time. Isaac could easily tell he wanted to talk, but he hesitated. Finally he said, "I can't be your father..."

"It could have meant something else," he pressed, not believing Judas could be his dad either. He would never believe it, even if it was true. "Maybe the journal was originally my dad's. Maybe my dad planned all this, and he dropped a hint. Or, there's always the chance that it's just an irrelevant dream."

Both Isaac and Judas knew that they both didn't want to be related, so they were forced to believe those three suggestions.

"Tell me if you remember anything else," Judas requested. "I'll tell you anything too."

"Good night."

"But it's your shift, Isaac."

 _Ugh._

* * *

Another concerned and troubling shift passed, and a concerned and troubling sleep followed it. Eventually the next day came, and this time Isaac hid his true thoughts. He didn't want to worry others; this was all on him.

Everyone stretched and smiled. "Good morning, Isaac," Maggy spoke, then laughed. "Look at your hair! It's spiked up at the back."

He brushed his hand over his hand. "Oh, come on, Maggy," he chuckled, "I have great hair. Don't hurt its feelings." He paused, then smirked mischievously. "Speaking of hair..." He waved her blonde curls out of her face. "Yours isn't very obedient, is it?"

She laughed some more, then slapped his hand away playfully and crossed her arms. "I let it do what it wants."

Cain whispered to Judas, and he nodded. Isaac barely caught what he said: "They've got something going on between them."

Isaac then looked up at the change of scenery. The living room truly looked like a room now, and so did every other area in their new home. There was an entrance, but it wasn't a door, just an opening. Almost all of the improvements were used with yarn, and nails stabbed through it near the tips to keep it where it is. "I like this new environment," Isaac complimented.

"No problem," Judas replied modestly.

They all went to the living room to eat breakfast.

* * *

 **Thanks to SamsonIsOP for reviewing and following/favoriting.**

 **Personally, this is when I think the story becomes stabilized. I've never been good at starting stories, and, although I did better this time, I still had a feeling of uncertainty for how much I liked the first few chapters, but then I did this one and it made me feel a lot better than the other ones, and I'm going to try to keep that up.**

 **Any comments, concerns, or complaints? Send a review or PM. Liking the story? Press the Favorite/Follow button. I'd like to know people enjoy me doing this. :)**

 **If anyone would like to make me a new cover image _that lies within the site guidelines,_ I'd enjoy it a whole bunch, you don't even know. (I feel like that's the one flaw in this story is that the cover image is terrible. ._.)**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	8. Deranged Grin

After having a nice meal and then going around doing normal business, Isaac decided to talk to Maggy.

"Have you ever thought about the situation we're in?" Isaac started as he passed her.

"Huh?" Maggy asked. "Kind of."

"I just want to talk it out," he explained. "Anyway, we were sent to a place we don't know and lost all memory of anything. Don't you find it kind of weird?"

"Yeah," she agreed. "But where are you going with this?"

"I'm not sure," he confessed. "But we can't stay here forever. I know we worked hard on this, but we need to try to find a way out eventually. Do you understand so far?"

"Yes."

"We've got to see why we're here. If we stay here forever...well, we can't. Sooner or later, we're going to have to go find more food and water, or our home could be destroyed, and so on."

"Go on."

"So I decided we'll live here for a few more days until our food and water goes low, and then we'll go further out." He finished and scanned Maggy's face. She had on a serious face, but she wasn't sad or crying; if she was, she held it back very well.

"Are you going to tell everyone else?" Maggy inquired.

"Yes, right now."

After he discussed it with everyone, they went back to anything else they were doing when suddenly he heard tapping from afar. It came from the ground, and he recognized it as the sound of footsteps.

He slipped out of the makeshift house to see a long, black haired woman. She had a mark of a moon and a star on her cheek, and a plastic pin attached to her hair of a dead bird. Her shirt was ripped along the side, and below lay a long, bleeding cut. She raced towards him. "Please help me," she said simply, her hands balled together as she kneeled below him.

He hastily brought her into the house. Everyone stopped and looked at the two. "Judas, bring any kind of things you can use as a bandage," he instructed. "Cain, you help him. Maggy, get your heart."

They all promptly went to do their jobs. "You'll be okay," Isaac reassured. "What's your name?"

She was trembling. _It must be really painful,_ Isaac assumed, looking at the wide cut and the flowing blood. _And scary._

Finally she calmed down enough to speak. "Eve," she said quietly.

Maggy came back with her soft heart and gave it to Eve. "Don't worry, worse has happened," she comforted.

Cain and Judas also came back with materials for a bandage. It wasn't very impressive; they had ripped out a large strip of a bag and two small pieces of tape. _It'll have to do._ He put on the strip and taped it on to her. It stopped the blood a portion, but it drenched slowly, then leaked out. He could tell the pain wasn't shrinking very fast, because she still shook and a tear of hers hit the ground. _The pain's gonna go fast, but it could either be because we stop the bleeding or she dies,_ he analyzed. "Do you have anything else?" he asked Judas and Cain.

"Well, we have the yarn, but that's all else I could see being effective," Judas responded.

"Maggy, you threaded the yarn to make this house, right?"

"Yes."

"Please thread Eve a bandage."

She began immediately, and Isaac looked back at Eve, who was slowly closing her eyes. "Don't go to sleep," Isaac warned. "You may be tired, but sleeping while your injured is gonna kill you more likely than if you're awake."

"What can—" She shook more as she talked, then didn't try to finish talking. _She can't even talk,_ he worried. "You'll _have_ to sleep," Isaac resolved unsurely. "It's the only thing that will relax you. Just...don't think about dying."

She laid down on her stomach and closed her eyes. "I'm done her bandage," Maggy said, handing it to him. He grabbed his copper cord and also obtained Maggy's, then stuck them inside the yarn and into the old bandage like a pin. It blocked the blood even worse than the old one, but it had to do. Everyone stared at her desperately, hoping as much as they could she would survive. It doesn't matter who it was, they needed as much people as they could and as least death as possible.

Unexpectedly, her skin slowly changed black and they all took a step back.

"Eve? Are you okay?" Judas softly put her had on her forehead. "Her head's scorching."

Then, curved horns gradually grew on her head and the symbol on her cheek shone. Her eyes opened expressionlessly and she also began to grow in size.

Judas stepped back quickly. "It's that emblem on her face," he interpret, pointing at it.

"Run!" Isaac exclaimed as the monster who used to be Eve looked down at them.

They all raced together away from Eve as her horns grasped the yarn walls and hacked them off. She vigorously smashed the rock roof with her head and ran after the bunch, bigger than the four people combined.

 _I knew our luck was short,_ he gloated. _But now's not the time for being happy for my true prediction, now's the time to make true decisions._ As the terrain rattled and cracked around them, he made a quick action. He grabbed the die swiftly out of his pocket and stopped.

"Isaac, no!" Maggy screamed. "Don't stop!"

He flung the die and it landed on a 3.

Eve was only a few steps away from him, but she wouldn't get any closer. The earth stopped roaring, and Eve squeaked. The die got her right on the foot and began to pull her in. She clawed at the earth with her monstrous hands, trying to get a hold of Isaac, wanting to drag him with her, but Isaac didn't move, not even flinch. He absolutely knew that this would work. As the final remnants of her arrived in the die, she made a bloodcurdling screech that made everyone cower.

Everyone but Isaac.

He stood still with a deranged grin. He breathed heavily, and the other three didn't move.

"Something's wrong with him," Cain whispered.

Isaac casually took just one small, tiny step towards the die, challenging it to come out with something worse. He knew exactly what to do if it came to that. Just keep rolling the die, it would always save them, nothing wrong would _ever_ happen. He'd be the hero here. Everyone would bow to him and the power of his die.

After a long period of time, Isaac had to assumed that sound itself died. Either that, or he became deaf. Then a noise finally dared to reveal itself—the die shook and spat out Eve. Not the vicious, wicked Eve...just Eve.

She made no sound. She just gazed at Isaac and cried.

* * *

 **Thanks to SamsonIsOP for reviewing.**

 **Any comments, concerns, or complaints, send a review/PM. If you like the story, press the Favorite/Follow buttons. If you'd like to send me a cover image for my story _that is within the site's guidelines,_ please do so. I would enjoy that very much. Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	9. Desperate for Company

A few hours passed. Everyone put effort into rebuilding the house. It took a while for Isaac to contribute as much as the others were because half of him was working and the other was scolding himself.

 _Stupid Isaac,_ he rebuked. _It wasn't her fault. She can't seem to control that thing. You, though, need to control yourself. You did the right thing, sure, but you should have seen your face. You were insane. Yes, I understand, we're not living much of—no, we aren't at all living a normal life._ _But that's just more of a reason that you need to stay sane. You scared the all living heck out of your friends, and now they're not going to trust you as much as they did before. Now, you need to commit yourself to making them believe you're still sensible._

Then he'd repeat it just to make sure he got the point.

Finally they finished the house. Albeit not as elegant and natural, it had the same structural integrity, or at least they thought and hoped.

"Now, I think we all need a rest, right?" Isaac chose to point out the obvious; the more he did, the more sane he would appear as if he was making difficult decisions.

They all nodded. They were over the fright that happened several hours ago, but they were still tired from it. "I'll take first shift," Judas volunteered. "I'm not as tired as the others."

Isaac and the others gladly went to sleep.

* * *

Everything was pitch black. Isaac tried to turn around, but he was stuck. He couldn't more or see. Maybe he was paralyzed and blind in real life, but he didn't think so. He knew this was a dream. He felt ready for anything coming at him, but at the same time, he wasn't.

The ground below him suddenly brightened. He became unstuck, and immediately looked down to see fire. His breathing quickened, but then it all swirled up into an egg shape diagonal to him, and it became a glass bulb. _A lightbulb._ He sighed.

The light was extremely sluggish, however, and his surroundings were revealed one by one. The ceiling was bumpy and slanted, and a tan color.

 _A house?_

Finally, the glow reached the walls. It was smoother, yet also tan.

 _Definitely._

The phosphorescence seemed to be peeling the darkness to reveal the wall, and finally it came to his floor. It was a carpet, not the same color as the wall and ceiling yet still lively.

Then it crept up to him. He was laying in a soft bed with the blankets felt thick and bushy. The pillow had small, slacking tips and was about two times the size of his head. It was silky and comfortable. For once he felt like he was actually in his house.

Before he could truly get into a good sleeping position, everything turned dark again. He was ripping apart again, and it felt just like before. He screamed a silent scream—this time he hadn't even seen his friends before he was torn, he was abandoned.

Instantaneously the hurt ended. His vision was covered with purple particles, blue lights, occasional red flashes, tons of colors bursting in his face.

Then he was in his cell. His rough, hard, metal, depressing, dismal, wet, disgraceful cell.

Then...he was awake.

"Isaac?"

It was Maggy. For some reason, as soon as he woke up, he felt adrenaline rushing through him. His veins pumped with energy, and he felt like he would never have to sleep again.

"Yes?"

"It's almost your turn for your shift, but I wanted to talk about something before I went back to sleep." She sounded solemn.

"Tell me anything you want. I'll listen."

Suddenly her eyes bursted with tears and she cried on his shoulder. It startled him and he flinched, but he understood—it was just sudden. She tried to make as little noise as possible, she didn't want anyone else waking up, but she needed all the tears out, and she needed someone to know.

He pat her back, and let a little tears out himself. "I hate this too," he began. "But we can't just teleport out of here. We need to stay strong."

She sniffled and wiped her eyes. "I know," she sobbed, "but...I just...it _sucks!_ Why are we even _here!?_ I just want to leave! We never did anything, and if we did, we should _know_ about it!" She vented all her sadness to anger, then back to sadness. She hugged Isaac tightly, and it became hard to breathe. He realigned her so they were face to face.

Then instinct took over again. He kissed her on the lips and kept it there.

They stayed that way for a while. They needed someone to love, someone to listen, and they had that now. They didn't want the kiss to end, but they were both tired and Isaac needed to do his shift. He finally separated his lips from hers.

"I love you," he choked out with a somber smile.

"I love you, too," Maggy replied. She settled down and went to sleep quickly.

He took his first shift without any troubled thoughts or feelings...just happiness.

* * *

Isaac woke up again. His eyes were dried from the crying, but Maggy's whole face was stained with tears.

"Are you okay, Isaac?" Cain asked with sincere concern.

"I'm fine now," he assured. "We all have to let it out eventually."

Cain had more to say, but he said it quieter and they inched away from everyone else. "Is something going on between you and Maggy?"

 _They would notice sooner or later,_ he thought, and he wanted to smash his head with a rock. He didn't even know how to answer, and he tried to make a look like he wasn't in the mood, but Cain waited patiently.

"Ugh, okay, I'll tell you." He took a long breath. "We..." He murmured as quietly as possible. "We're in love."

He nodded knowingly, then looked straight at him and smiled mischievously. "Did you guys do anything involving...y'know... _action?_ " he pressed, nudging Isaac's chest playfully.

He didn't know what he meant at first, but then he got the picture and his eyes widened. "Oh, no no no no _no_. Nothing further than kissing. Don't get into that... _other_ kind of stuff." He closed his eyes and shook his hands, trying as hard as he could to not put any of those kinds of images in his head. Although he knew Cain was just having fun, he replied, "That's a bit too far."

"Okay, I'm sorry," Cain apologized smugly but truthfully, then scratched the back of his neck. "Good day." He walked away.

 _Ugh. I'll have to try harder than I've tried for everything I've ever done combined to keep that out of my head_.

He found something to take his mind off of it. "We're moving out today," he proclaimed.

The message earned mixed feelings. Maggy and Cain smiled, yet Judas and Eve were uncertain.

He looked at Cain. He still was covered with bandages from the encounter they had with the monster. "You should take those off," Isaac instructed. "You don't need them any more, surely."

And he was right. Once Cain finished pulling the strips off, no injuries showed. "Okay, we'll be moving out in a few minutes. Pack all the stuff you'll be taking with you."

Everyone accumulated their belongings and the group took off.

As soon as they left the stone, the message about the two lovers spread as fast as it came. However, no one made a big deal about it; Judas thought of it as a 'very sensible thing any human would do in this position,' and Eve shrugged. _She's not very talkative,_ he observed. Any time Isaac looked at her, he was smothered in guilt, so he tried not to as often as he could.

The pair was joyful that no one objected to their relationship and they held hands as they walked.

Abruptly Eve stopped and put her ear to the wind. "What's the matter?" Cain requested.

"Shh," she responded. "Listen."

Just then, a single _boom_ disturbed the air, then a far away voice.

"It's a survivor," Judas identified. They all increased their pace.

As they got near, the voice said, "Oh no."

The crowd slowed down. "Is he worried about the thundering we're making?" Judas whispered.

"Don't worry," Isaac assured loudly. "We're just survivors."

They heard steps, then saw him. He was the tallest out of all of them, with long brown hair and a red headband. His skin was a slight red, and it was easy to assume that he was healthy and strong, aside from his limp as he came towards them.

They watched as he viewed the whole group, then he rubbed his eyes. "Am I dreaming?"

A few people laughed. "Nope, we're all here, tough guy," Cain promised.

"I'm Samson," the robust man said. "Could I join you?"

More laughter. "Of course," Judas approved.

 _Samson's hard to explain,_ Isaac analyzed. _He's...childish, I guess, but he's nice. Either that, or he's been desperate for company for a while, and suddenly five sane, smart people walk over to him, saying "Hey, follow us." He's obviously going to have a different first impression._

They walked much more leisurely as the group lashed Samson with questions.

"What's your limp for?" Cain asked.

"I fell and hurt my leg. I think it's broken, but I don't take medical school."

"What did you find in your cell?" Maggy questioned.

"This tattoo." He pulled his shirt up halfway, showing an emblem of a blood drop. "Whenever I get hurt, my skin becomes redder and I become stronger. After a while, my strength gradually returns to normal."

Isaac dug out a perfect query. "Have you dreamed of anything in your past life?"

Samson's face went wistful and distracted, until he answered his question. "One," he answered. "I'll tell you later."

The chatter continued for a while. They all became preoccupied, and finally Isaac noticed Judas wasn't with them. He twisted his head to see him a few feet behind the group, still walking, but with his head down and slower than the rest. Isaac cut himself from the rest of the crowd to talk to Judas.

"Judas, what's the matter? Don't you want to—" he began, but Judas abruptly stopped and looked straight at him. His eyes were pure white.

"...Judas?" Isaac breathed.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Maggy coming towards them. "You guys?" she inquired.

Judas' eyes returned back to normal.

Maggy was now right beside Isaac. "Is Judas okay?" she asked cautiously.

All of a sudden Judas pushed his feet with all his might away from them. "I'm sorry," he called back. "Good luck."

Isaac was about to call him back when a giant wall of rock slipped down from the ceiling, crashing down and spraying dust everywhere. He closed his eyes and turned away, and when he sensed it was okay to open them, he looked back around. He was alone with Maggy—his friends were at the other side of the wall.

* * *

 **Wow, this chapter is loooong. And that's not a bad thing, at least in my opinion. Speaking of which, from now on the chapters will all be longer than the early ones by about 33%! :D**

 **Also, sorry for releasing this chapter late. I had to wake up early to clean up the new house we'll be moving to so I had to wait a long time to submit this.**

 **Have feedback? Tell me through a review/PM. Enjoying the story? Press the Favorite/Follow buttons. If you really like the story, it would make me extremely happy if someone sent me a new cover image I can use _within the site guidelines._**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	10. Forever

Maggy gasped. Isaac just sighed, but it trembled as he tried to steady his mind.

The only clear thought that went through his head was _Oh no._

The other thoughts he had to struggle to read them. _We're dead,_ was one. _We have no materials, food, or water,_ was another. _We're alone,_ was another.

It all streamed through his brain to his mouth. "Maggy, what will we do?" he wept. "We have nothing. We're going to starve or dehydrate or some other stupid, abnormal obstacle will be thrown at us. We need to get across that wall, we need to, Maggy."

She slapped him hard across the face and glared at him. Everything inside him stopped, and only two words came out. "I'm sorry," he whimpered.

"Me too, but you need to be rational," she asserted. "I've learned that from you. I'm normally a very happy, cheerful person, not a strategy maker, not a thinker, not any of that stuff. Now is the time we need that kind of stuff, and if you won't do it, I will."

 _I would have said something like that,_ Isaac thought with pride, but not for him, for her. _She learned well._

"Okay," he agreed. "Let's both be sensible about this. The more, the better."

"First we'll need to find food," she suggested.

"Then water, hopefully at the same time."

"Next, shelter."

"After that—"

They heard someone banging on the wall. They urgently rocketed towards it.

"Maggy! Isaac! Are you guys okay?" It sounded like Cain.

"We're fine," Isaac responded. "But, of course, we don't know a way across."

"Stay there," Judas instructed. "We'll find something to—"

A fist stabbed straight though the wall.

Isaac's mouth hung open, and Maggy covered her own with her hands. The fist's veins throbbed with energy, and a few drops of blood gently cascaded down several cuts made from the stony wall. A red glow erupted through the hand and the veins pulsated much more powerfully.

After a long silence, the hand retracted and a foot made another hole in the wall, and another radiance burst out of it, creating more red, now a crimson.

Then the two walked backwards as Samson strolled through the blockage with ease, breaking away more of the rough wall, and looked down at the shaking Maggy and Isaac.

"Your welcome," he said simply with a grin.

* * *

After learning of Samson's supernatural strength and continuing to wander around, albeit in silence unlike before, people began to yawn and stomachs commenced rumbling, so they all sat down for a break.

Judas opened his sack, which contained all the food and water, and passed some of it around. It wasn't a very impressive meal, but it was more than usual.

"So, can I tell about my dream now?" Samson requested to Isaac.

"Sure," he approved, and they all sat down to hear.

Once everyone was settled in, Samson initiated his story. "I was in a chair, watching the television, when suddenly the door opened. I went over to see who it was, and it was a kid around my age. Well, not my age now, but my age then. I assumed I was a preteen. Anyway..."

It didn't sound like it was very important, so he distracted himself with some thoughts. "Hey, Maggy," he whispered.

"Hmm?" she asked. She sounded tired, and when he looked at her, she appeared to be tired too.

"You wanna go to sleep early tonight?" he suggested.

"Sure, why not," she yawned.

"Same here," he admitted, yawning with her. "G'night."

Maggy was already in her slumber. She had a smile on.

* * *

He woke in the same house from his dream. _Obviously this is another one, then._

He was also in the same rocking chair, but his dad wasn't there. Beside the fireplace was a television which wasn't there in his last dream. He walked over and tried to turn it on, but it didn't work.

Then he saw a VCR below it attached to the back of the TV. A single cassette tape lay isolated on the ground. He picked it up and scanned it to see what it was. Finally, he saw a very well blended word. His eyes strained to see it, then he processed it said simply 'Song'. He inserted the tape.

The TV turned on by itself, but there was no video, only audio, and it chanted softly, slowly:

Sleepy, sleepy baby, Happy, happy baby, Yawning, yawning baby, Lovely, lovely baby.

Go to bed and sleep now, Snore and snore and bye now, We know you're fatigued now, Good night and goodbye now.

The video began to play. It was dark, but it looked like the bedroom he was in in another one of his dreams. Abruptly all the light from the house went away—not from the video, from the real house.

The door from both the television and real life...well, real dream...opened. Looking at both of them, he saw a black, winged, horned demon approach him.

The TV turned itself off, and the beast cornered Isaac. He breathed heavily without noticing it.

The monster opened it's mouth.

"Forever."

Isaac woke up.

* * *

After another rather difficult shift, the team woke up. Isaac went right away to Judas.

"Judas, I had another dream," he informed him.

"What was it?" he urged.

"I was in the house where I saw my dad, but this time he wasn't there, and there was a TV. It was attached to a VCR, and there was a cassette tape on the floor that said 'Song'. I put it in and it obviously sang a song, but then all the lights turned off after it was finished, and a demon entered the house, and it got me stuck in a corner, and it said 'Forever'."

Isaac explained everything extremely quickly, so Judas had to take some time to process what he said. He opened his mouth for a second, but his eyes went colorless again.

 _Don't tell me some other wall is gonna separate us again or something,_ Isaac pleaded.

His eyes went back to normal and he gazed at Isaac.

"Azazel," Judas explained. He took his pen and rubbed his chin with it. "Azazel..." he repeated.

Isaac put his head to the side and looked at him in confusion. "Azazel?"

"Yes."

 _Okay, he really needs to tell me what in heck 'Azazel' means._ "What does that mean?"

"That's the demon's name. Azazel is the one who took us here, too."

Isaac scratched his neck. "Okay, so what does that solve for us?"

"It's not _too_ important, especially as of now," Judas confessed. "But it will be."

"Why?"

"I don't know, I'm not the one controlling these visions."

"Oh, so that's what they are."

"Yes." He stalked away, writing in his book.

 _I learned less about my dream and more about him,_ Isaac complained. _This Azazel guy needs to get us back home, or else._

"Is everyone ready to go?" Isaac exclaimed. No one objected. "Then let's go."

Just as he took his first step to begin the journey, the floor creaked below him and he tried not to move.

People began chattering; no one but Cain noticed Isaac. "What's wrong?" he said, walking towards him.

"Don't—" he started, and the floor squeaked louder. Cain paused, too.

By then, the whole group was rushing towards them. "No, stay away!" Isaac yelled, but not in time. The floor gave up and he fell to what he expected to be his death.

However, he only landed about ten feet from where he dropped. It was the pure opposite of the mansion he had been wandering up there—this place was bright, beautiful, and cozy.

"Hello."

He twisted around to the noise, for some reason getting ready to see Azazel. However, it was just...no, not at all 'just'...a hovering, blazing-white haired, closed-eyes human. As he revealed his eyes, they shone like a thousand suns and Isaac had to turn away.

"I am Eden."

* * *

 **Thanks to SamsonIsOP for reviewing.**

 **Speaking of, Samson _is_ OP. xD But don't worry, this isn't Mary Sue here. He still did get hurt by the wall there, and he still can get badly hurt or even die.**

 **Enjoy the story? Leave a Favorite/Follow. Have some feedback? Leave a Review/PM as well. If someone would like to send me a cover image they made that I can use _under the site's guidelines,_ I'd like that a lot. :)**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	11. Together

"I have so many questions," Isaac spoke. "First of all—"

"No."

"No?"

"No."

 _So...when are people actually going to talk to me instead of repeating themself? I'd like to actually make progress in the conversation._

"No what?"

"I cannot answer your questions. I cannot give you more of them. But I can assist you."

"And how?" _I'm still not sure about this guy. He's a real pain. But considering his looks and his fancy talk, he gives me a feeling he could help us._

Eden closed his eyes again and stood. For a second, he hesitated, thenwalked slowly to Isaac, who was still unsure about this.

"Here."

Eden's skin glistened, then he vanished.

 _Yeah, thanks for giving me nothing. I had hope in you. I would be surprised by all this, but so many things have happened, there isn't much that can't happen._

Before Isaac could think of anything else, Eden reappeared with a large bag half the size of Isaac. _Hooray! Can I open it now?_

He gave Isaac the bag and he noticed it had six nails in it. _So...this is our sixth bag now, is it? I'm hoping it's food._

"Each one of the objects in there are destined to be with their owner. And this." He gave him a necklace. "Just use this whenever you're ready. It'll bring you and your friends closer to your destination.

"Could I go back to my friends please?" Isaac requested excitedly.

"Of course." Isaac was lifted up by an unknown force and Eden waved goodbye. Isaac felt a quick pain, then suddenly he was back with his friends.

They were looking down into the hole he created when he fell. He saw it for himself, and it didn't look like the room did; it looked even darker than this place, and endless.

Most of them were crying—they thought he was gone, and they didn't even notice him right behind them.

"Hey, guys."

They all turned towards Isaac. "You're okay!" Maggy shouted, and gave him a huge hug.

Everyone else also tried to give him a hug. Except Eve. And, of course, Judas. _She's always been silent,_ he thought. _And she barely cried. I don't really know her at all, actually._

Maggy gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, then asked, "What happened down there? And what's that other sack for?"

"Well, when I fell in the hole, it was actually only a few feet down. The endless darkness is an illusion. It was really bright and beautiful, and I met someone named Eden, and he gave me all this stuff. He told me 'Each one of the objects in there are destined to be with their owner'."

"That's nice and all, but most of all, we're all just glad you're okay." Maggy squeezed him harder, and he coughed. "Oops." She laughed.

"So, do you guys want to see what's in here?" Isaac inquired, and they all nodded. Even Eve. _After this, I'm going to talk to her,_ he decided.

Isaac pulled out the first object. It was a small angel plushy, with tiny nubs as hands and no feet. It had a wide, open smile on it.

"Ohhh, it's cuuute!" Maggy took it, but it beat its wings and began to revolve around her. She laughed, spinning around away from the crowd.

He started to pull another, but cut himself on it. _Owch._ This time he did it more carefully, feeling around and pulling it out. It was a razor blade.

Eve raised her hand, and he gave it to her. She scanned it as if she thought it had some special capabilities and she was trying to find it out.

The next was a small bag with a symbol of a bomb. "I'll have it," Cain spoke. He captured it delicately in his hands as if he expected it to explode.

The one after was something Isaac couldn't really explain. _What is this?_ It seemed like a knife whose blade was bent largely forwards.

"I'll try it out," Samson applied, taking it and examining it closely. Isaac took the next object out, and, as soon as he saw what it was, tossed it to the ground in surprise. It was a human tongue.

"Well, you're not gonna accept that any time soon, so give it here," Judas demanded.

While everyone had fun, investigated, or scowled at their new objects, he pulled out the last thing that he would use. Or rather, it approached his hand by itself. It was a knife; not the awkward, unusual 'knife' Samson took the burden of using, but a normal butcher knife. He threw it at the wall, but instead of hitting it, it boomeranged straight back to his hand perfectly.

"Are you guys ready to leave this place?" he asked suddenly.

"What do you mean? You've found a way?" Judas exclaimed.

"Eden said that, once we're ready, I just use this necklace and poof, we're all..." He paused. _Where? He never said._ "...somewhere," he finished unhappily.

The group packed all their stuff up. "Let's go," Cain concluded. "Together."

"Together! Together!" Maggy chanted, raising her fist in the air at each word. The rest joined in with them, and Isaac's smile got larger and determination stronger. _Wherever this takes us, we'll deal with it,_ he established as the chanting reached its highest. Without Eve.

 _Together!_

They all vanished.

Isaac awoke.

He opened his eyes for a short second, but the light shut them back. _My eyes got used to the darkness. They can't deal with light anymore, can they?_

This time, he freed his eyes slower, and gradually he became accustomed to the new surroundings. Chandeliers dangled below the high ceiling, causing the glow irritating his eyes. Mosaic pictures covered the walls with holy stone frames. He heard the rushing of water just around the corner, and he trudged tiredly to it when he heard a familiar voice.

"Wait, don't turn the corner."

He recognized it as Maggy. "Why not, Maggy?" he protested.

"I found this water, so I took a bath. I'm not in the water right now, so don't you _dare_ turn that corner."

 _I wouldn't want to,_ he agreed. "Sorry. I'll wait." He tapped his foot. "This place really contrasts from the stuff we had to go through before."

"Yeah, I'm liking it a whole lot better," she admitted. "Is anyone else awake?"

"Not yet," he replied, turning around and seeing the happily slumbering companions. None of them had signs of dreaming, which had its pros and cons. None of them seemed like they would wake up soon, either, which was all pros.

"Okay, you can come around now," she accepted.

"Is everything covered?" he asked cautiously.

"Of course," she giggled. "I don't want you seeing me like that. I'm not dressed, but you can't see anything."

He hesitated. _It kinda sounds like she's joking..._ he suspected, but took the risk. He walked around the corner and took a quick glance at her. She was concealed through the water.

 _Phew._

The water looked clean, but also very unclear, the perfect combo for the situation they were in. "You can come in, but seriously, keep your clothes on," Maggy advised.

* * *

 **Thanks to SamsonIsOP for reviewing.**

 **Ignore that last part of the story there. ;)**

 **I've actually been ahead of the story this whole time. I've already written up to chapter 15, but I haven't been in the writers mood lately. I'd better get back to it or else the updates might slow and I don't want that. :/**

 **Like the story, favorite/follow. Want to give feedback, review/PM. You know the drill. And the image thing.**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	12. Strategically, Not Offensively

They set up a camp nearby the bath. It wasn't like the pool they had before—it was a lot shallower, maybe 6 feet or so, and the rock that held it implied that it was manmade. It was completely circular, and around the pool it was built like a home. Not a house, just a home.

After their bath, Isaac and Maggy came to a conclusion that it was time to wake people up. As Isaac began waking people up, Maggy got dressed.

"Wake up, everybody!" Isaac exclaimed. "We're here."

One by one, everyone sat up. "That was the greatest sleep I've had in a while," Cain acknowledged.

"Same here," Isaac agreed. He hadn't stretched since he woke up, so he did now.

"Where's Maggy?" Judas asked. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine, we just—" He paused, and Judas crossed his arms. Cain also heard, and he looked at them sideways.

 _Not this again._ "We just, uh..."

"Had a bath," Judas finished disappointedly, seeing that Isaac wasn't fully dry. "Together."

"We were fully clothed," he lied. _It's half true,_ he argued. _I was fully clothed. And I didn't see any of her._

"Sure. Anyway, now what?" Isaac was completely relieved that Judas didn't keep the discussion going.

"We could stay here and make a base, or we could keep on going to get out of here."

"When you really think about it, it's like asking 'Would you rather stay here, waste a bunch of materials and food, then, when something happens to your home, finally stray out just to die, or would you rather go now, saving some food and water for the trip and hopefully surviving?'"

 _That makes a lot of sense._ "Yeah, we'll be going then," he chose.

They set off for their adventure in this much more comforting place. However, he still had a discussion to make with Eve.

"Eve, why are you always sticking in the back? We need friends here."

"I never saw friends as a priority."

"It's not a priority at all. Survival is our priority much more than friends. But we've been doing well at surviving, and we've had a lot of time to make our own friends. You never took good care of that time."

"They're all chatting with the friends they already have."

"So just join in their conversation."

"But..." _No excuses._ "...I'm socially awkward." _Nevermind._ "And no one comes to _me_ looking to discuss."

"You need to at least try. When you start talking, you might feel a bit embarrassed and nervous, but they'll understand. A lot of the people here are patient." He glanced at Judas. "If you want to try to make a friend, don't start with him," he suggested.

Finally she nodded. She carefully plodded towards Cain, who was talking cheerfully to Samson.

 _I've gotten through to her. Good._

He looked off in the distance. He saw that they were in a very long hallway. Suddenly he felt insecure and gripped the knife and die in his pocket.

"Sensing trouble?" Maggy questioned, startling him. He turned around—she was behind him the whole time.

"Nice job getting Eve to start conversing," she complimented.

"Thanks," he said curtly. He felt less safe by the second and began to pull out the two objects.

"I'm pretty sure we're fine," she soothed. "Put the stuff away."

He slipped it slowly back into his pocket, but kept a firm clutch on it. "I'm not sure," he admit. "I don't feel safe." His uncertainty kept rising even though she tried to calm him.

"You're starting to become paranoid, aren't you?" she noticed fearfully. "We're fine, I promise."

He heard a few knocks on the ceiling and he spun his head up. As soon as he spotted what made the noise, he stopped walking and went into an offensive stance. "Everyone, stay still," he breathed as loudly as he could without making the threat come down to them.

They all paused and took out whatever they could use aggressively for the fight they would have—Judas his journal, Cain his bomb bag, Samson his bent knife, Eve her razor blade, and Maggy her heart and angel. _She doesn't have anything she could use to hurt them,_ he worried. The angel orbited around her, and it could be an annoyance to whatever she fought, but she'd have to use her hands and fists for this.

The threat crawled down the ceiling, on the wall, and finally on the floor, and everyone got to see what they truly were. They were all blue, dead clones of each and every one of them. They even had the items they had, the clothes, everything. It's like they mirrored every step they made until they finally faced each other.

"We're gonna have to fight our own copy," Isaac informed, still staring down his own duplicate. "And they have everything you have. Fight strategically, not offensively."

Everyone acknowledged him. "Isaac, will we be okay?" Maggy whispered timidly. She shook as she gazed at her double who looked back at her with a serious look. _They're all dead, they don't have to worry about emotions any more,_ he noticed. _If we get caught off guard, we'll be dead along with them._

"Go!" Isaac screamed as he lunged at his own copy. The quiet, divine hall turned into a loud, wicked battle in that second.

He immediately noticed that he could easily defeat him with his die, but his clone had a die, too, so he kept on going with his knife. For a while no cuts had been scored; the two just hit each other's knives, trying to knock them out of their hands. _He's not mirroring my movements, he's just my mirror in general._ He quickly swooped the cube and tossed it, but the dead form of him realized and threw his own at it. The numbers didn't ever appear as, when they collided, they pulled each other in, and they both disappeared.

 _Well that solves that,_ Isaac sighed. _Back to knife fighting._

The fight continued for a long time. No one even got a hit on each other for an incredulously long time, but exhaustion began to creep in. The dead copies, however, needed no sleep—they kept on going forever.

 _What if I help someone else fight their own copy?_ he asked himself. _Since they don't feel exhaustion, they wouldn't have to fight one of us; they'd just wear us down and then kill us._

He dodged out of the dead Isaac's blow and boomeranged his knife at dead Maggy. It cut her arm off and she opened her mouth, but nothing came out. _She can't talk._

Maggy went on assaulting her clone until it was still, then she put a thumbs up to Isaac who was fighting himself again. _Come over here and help me, please._

His clone threw his knife over Isaac's head, and he ducked. He took a few slashes at his dead self and it collapsed.

"Isaac, look out!" Maggy warned, and he turned around. The knife was coming back at him. He had no time to react; it stabbed him directly in the chest.

He fell back, and he didn't know what else happened. His vision went fully blurred, his hearing was fuzzy, and the pain was intolerable.

He saw someone tilt over him. He sensed it to be Maggy, but he didn't know what she was doing.

"I love you," he coughed, then went unconscious.

* * *

 **Thanks to SamsonIsOP for reviewing.**

 **If Isaac getting stabbed in the chest is scary enough, here's something to increase the cliffhanger-people will die in the story. Will Isaac die? Or will he not? Perspectives will change in the story, maybe it's because Isaac dies and someone needs to take his place as the 3rd person viewer? Get ready for the next chapter. :D**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	13. What You Are

"I am lost."

 _What?_ Isaac stood up. He wasn't in pain at all. _This is definitely a dream._

"I am lost."

"Who are you?" He didn't see him anywhere.

"I am lost."

 _Again with the repeating._ "Who are you?" he repeated in irritation.

"I am lost. The lost."

 _Oh, I get it._ "Your name is Lost?"

" _The_ Lost."

"Okay. What are you doing here?"

"I am your soul. I am lost. Think of the metaphor there."

He got it pretty easily. _But I can't be dead. I'm dreaming._ "I'm not dead, am I?"

"No, you're not. You're dying." Finally, The Lost appeared. He was pale and levitated through his wispy tail. "They're taking care of you the best they can."

"So, what are you here for?"

"I'm here just to tell you that you're dying. I know everything that's going to happen to you, but only in a short-term range."

"What _is_ going to happen to me? In the next few minutes, at least."

"You'll wake up. You're waking up right now, so I can't talk to you any more. You won't see me very often. This could be the only time you ever see me, actually."

The Lost became hazy. "Goodbye."

The agony returned bit by bit. His dream began to diminish and he returned to reality.

He opened his eyes. He was laid against the wall, and, as he examined the battlefield, he noted that the combat was over.

All his friends were around him. "Isaac, are you okay?" Cain queried.

 _No,_ he thought. _But it doesn't matter what I say. It's obvious that it's not okay._

He tried to speak, but his heart exploded with aching and he chose not to. He didn't even nod.

"We took care of the clones, if it makes you feel any better." Samson moved as he said it to show all of them. "Their weapons disintegrated once they died, though."

"The knife didn't disappear until it sliced you, so at least we didn't have to pull it out," Judas stated.

He started feeling numb, and his senses worsened. _I'm dying,_ he realized. _Guys, help me!_

"You'll be okay, Isaac," Maggy assured.

 _Not if you don't help me, I won't!_

Again, he tried to talk. The pain was relieving itself, but he knew that was a bad thing. "Guys...I'm n-not fine," he croaked. "I...I'm dying." He could no longer keep his eyes open, so he shut them, and weariness overwhelmed him. _Whatever I do, I can't go to sleep. It'll be done if I do._ He heard rushed, panicked exchanges very hazily.

His senses turned off. _Don't...sleep..._

He went comatose.

* * *

Isaac stirred. The pain was gone, but as he opened his eyes, his surroundings were a lot different. Everyone was asleep, and the chandeliers were off.

 _I fell asleep longer than I usually do._ Then he gaped. _The pain is gone, asleep longer than usual, alive, different surroundings? I was in a coma!_

 _They'll be glad to see me, then._

He walked around, viewing each of his friends. They were all okay. Intuitively he tiptoed over to Maggy and gave her a kiss, then laid down beside her.

He didn't realize Eve wasn't here until he saw her come in around the corner. She was taking a shift and just now concluded it.

"Hey, Eve."

She stopped in her tracks. "Who's there?" She slipped out her blade.

"Woah, calm down. It's just me, Isaac."

"You're awake?" she exclaimed. Judas twitched and rolled over.

"Shh, you're gonna wake them up," he whispered. "But yes, I'm awake. Was I in a coma?"

"Yes. Everyone thought you were dead, and they kept on believing it, but they didn't want to leave you. Me and Judas didn't believe it at all, but we were starting to change our minds."

 _Everyone thinks I'm dead? It must have been horrible. I'm glad I'm not, then._

"Also, I want to thank you. I've made a lot of friends here, and I'm getting better communal skills."

"I can tell. That's very nice."

"I'd better wake someone up for—"

"No, it's fine," he interrupted. "I've been slacking off a bit, haven't I?"

Eve laughed quietly. "You'd better go show us you can pull off a good shift then, young man," she scolded humorously.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. I'll take all the time I slept in shifts," he apologized amusingly.

"Goodnight." Eve gave him a casual hug.

"Goodnight," he echoed. He rounded the corner and began his bout.

* * *

"Maggy?"

He was going to choose her for the next shift, mostly because he wanted her to know he was alive before she took it. However, as he approached her, she was singing in her sleep.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star...how I wonder what you are...up above the world so high...like a diamond in the sky..."

 _That's adorable._ She was having a dream of her past life, and that must have been something her parents sang to her as a child.

He realized he had begun humming with her. He had been sitting there for a few minutes, listening to her, until her voice ebbed. _Her dream ended._

He shook her gently. At first, she didn't even acknowledge it, but then she stretched her limbs and groaned. "Hi, Judas," she greeted. "Is it my turn yet?"

"It's your turn to be surprised," he responded as Maggy expanded her eyes.

"Isaac, you're alive!" she wailed. "We all thought you were dead! You—"

"Don't wake everyone up," he advised, putting his finger on her lips. "This is just me and you time."

She continued, but in a whisper. "You were in that coma so long, we thought you just died. I should have trusted Eve and Judas. They were right; here you are, right in front of me...just the two of us..."

He just now looked down and saw both her hands at his thighs, and he pushed them away gently. "Let's not get into that," he warned lightly. "I'm not interested."

"Sorry, it's just...no one else here has very good leadership skills, and we had to make Judas the new head of the team. But now you're back, after over a week of worry and low confidence. We thought you were the first to die."

 _Over a week,_ he repeated to himself. _Asleep for over a week. I'm not surprised they thought I had departed._

"I'm here now," he reassured, placing his palms at the back of her head.

"I'm glad you are," Maggy approved, setting her own on his.

They forced their heads together until their brows touched, and Maggy chuckled. They performed a basic but long smooch, then Maggy said, "I have to take my time, remember?"

"Oh yeah. Love you."

"Love you too."

He went back to his slumber.

* * *

"Forever."

Azazel had him trapped in his house again. Everything was the exact same as the other dream.

"You'll be forever dead once we find you," Isaac scoffed bravely. "You may just be in my dream now, but we'll encounter you some day, and you'll be done for. I didn't get this scar for nothing."

"You didn't get it for nothing," Azazel agreed, backing up a little and rubbing his chin. "You got it so everyone knows your weak spot. Including me."

"It only makes the rest of me stronger."

"Strong enough to get anyone away from your weak spot?"

"Definitely."

"Fast enough?"

"Sure."

"Smart enough?"

 _This guy is smug as all heck. He is basically a demon, though, I guess._ "I can protect it with everything I got. Nothing will get past it with my friends and the rest of me in the way."

"So, you think that your scar is just a burden?"

"No, I—"

"And your friends are just a bunch of meat shields for it?"

"Don't—"

"Along with Magdalene?"

" **Shut up!** " He brought out his knife and made a stab in Azazel's chest, proportionate to the cut of his own. "How do you like **your** flaw now? Huh? Gonna use your friends as meat shields, too? Oh, I should take the 'too' out, because **I don't do that.** " He drew out the knife gracefully and inserted it in his pocket.

Azazel toppled onto the ground, holding his neck and convulsing with each breath as pure black blood spilled out from his gash. "This won't be me...when I fight you..." he choked. "This is...just a dream..."

He gradually stopped struggling. Liquid darkness pooled around his feet. _He's dead._ Isaac did have knowledge that this was just a dream, but it felt good to kill their supposed captor.

 _Once we fight him again, not only will he be stronger than this...but he'll be ready._

* * *

 **Sorry for the stereotypical chapter name. ;)**

 **I thought a lot about changing perspectives when Isaac went into his coma, but I decided no. I mean come on, it was a week. Even if I changed perspective for just a chapter or two, it would either be skipping a lot of stuff or be soooo many more ch** **apters before he woke up. You may think 'no, he would wake pretty quickly when you think about it'. No, because the first chapters of Sheol (btw, chapters 1 to 11 were Sheol and now it's the Cathedral) was LESS than a week. I think. Go into how many times they slept and find out how many days yourself.**

 **Also, now we only need to find Lazarus and then we have every character! Yay! ...wait, frick.**

 **Lilith. D: (:D)**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	14. Didn't Accept

After waking up and the others learning about Isaac being alive and the coma, they set off again.

"I'm really glad your alive," Cain divulged.

"I'm pleased that everything went fine while I was gone," Isaac answered. "And I'm pleased that I have a chance to see everyone else again."

"What do you mean? This isn't just a chance." He gave him his full attention now. "Are you thinking you'll be hurt again?"

"If the theory of luck is true, then the odds are _something_ is going to happen sooner or later to one of us. Although I got pretty badly damaged, while I was out, nothing dangerous occurred, so...you get the idea."

"Let's just hope none of us dies."

"Let's hope against hope no one gets hurt, even."

They made a long journey, and the group chatted in bliss. Even Eve. Although she wasn't the greatest, she wasn't the worst. _Judas probably is. When he talks, it's just to hand us information and not to just talk._

He decided to make a mental analysis of each person as he walked. He'd already examined Judas and Eve, so he went on.

 _Cain's probably our defender here. Not only does he have defensive equipment, being his boot and his bomb bag, he's also a very cheerful person and he brings us up when our mental state gets low._

 _Maggy, besides us being in love and all, is a healer. Her heart is an obvious example, but the angel, besides being extremely cute, hasn't seemed to do anything unique yet._

 _Samson is our tank. The more pain he gets, the more pain he deals. Even if he's completely healthy, he still has gigantic power. He's also funny, but not because he makes jokes—that's Cain's job—he just comes off as entertaining._

 _I'm the leader, of course. I'm smart and serious, but easily distracted. If I get panicked, I need someone else to snap me out of it. Otherwise, I would say I'm a fairly good member._

 _I haven't really examined how Eve and Judas are a help to the team. Well, Eve is a good replacement. She can take any role very well and she concentrates on it like a starving bird does with its prey._

 _Judas is good outside of battle. He has no intelligence when it comes to fighting, but he has a big mind and the occasional visions, which are sometimes helpful._

"Isaac?" A voice interrupted his thoughts just as he finished.

"Yes?" It was Eve.

"Do you hear that crackling noise?"

He made a signal for everyone to stop, then listened to the air. It was a fire sound, not a stormy sound. A small light blazed in a dead end attached to the side of the hallway, and they twisted to see what was in it. There was a bonfire and a den that dug down diagonally. The tune of chewing food was heard from inside.

"What do you think? Is it a human or an animal?" Isaac called to Judas.

"Unquestionably a human," he responded, so they all walked in.

"Hello? Is someone here?" Cain called as they all strolled to the hideaway.

"Don't hurt me," it pleaded. It was younger than anyone from the team was.

"We won't hurt you, don't worry. We're just travelers, like you," Isaac assured.

It cautiously crawled out to see them. It had a light brown layer of hair on his head and a birthmark on his cheek. It was covered in bloodied bandages and held pieces to something none of them knew. "I'm...I'm Lazarus," he stuttered timidly.

 _At first glance, he seems like Eve when we first met her,_ he thought. _But Eve wasn't scared, she was just shy, so there's a little bit of a difference. He's also the youngest one here, probably 16 or 17._

"It's nice to meet you," Isaac greeted, reaching his hand out. Lazarus backed away, but hesitantly held and shook it unwillingly.

The crowd all told them their names. Lazarus seemed overwhelmed by the amount of people. _Let's hope he doesn't have a fear of crowds._

Isaac explained all their plans, and Lazarus went with it. _I wonder how much of a help he'll be to the team._

"Do you specialize in anything?" Isaac requested.

"Well, y-yeah, I guess," he answered distractedly. "I know how to build and c-create things, and I'd s-say I can make a thing or t-two for you guys."

 _This is a pretty neat base._ The fire illuminated the area and brought a warmth they hadn't felt in a long time. The den was smooth and cozy, albeit not spacious enough for the whole group. _It's okay, we weren't going to stay here too long anyway._ His stomach rumbled. _Well, we'll stay here as a break._

"Is it okay if we all take a break here, Lazarus?"

"Oh, o-okay."

They all went immediately to the fire.

"This feels so, _so_ great," Maggy admired, sitting with her hands practically in the fire.

Chatter bursted into the air. Conversations were being held everywhere. He decided to stay with Maggy a little, then jump into different discussions.

"Don't burn your hands," Isaac warned humorously.

"They're already freezer burned," she laughed.

"It doesn't mean you can't burn them again."

"You ruined the joke." She crossed her arms amusingly.

"Oops, sorry. I guess I ruined the heat, too?"

"What heat?"

"Now _you_ ruined _my_ joke." He crossed his arms too, and she grinned.

They sat in silence for a little while, then he saw Lazarus emerge from the hideaway with multiple bags dragging behind him, smelling of foods.

"Is that for each person?" Maggy marveled with her jaw wide open.

"Y-yes," Lazarus answered.

 _Wow. Tonight is a night to be remembered._

After the feast, Isaac forgot about everything. He didn't want to move, he didn't want to talk, he just wanted to lay down and relax. As everything quieted and eyes closed, for once Isaac didn't have any thoughts, any worries, any plans, just serenity.

Then he noticed no one else was awake. They had all forgotten about the shifts and never asked who would go first.

 _I'll take the first one,_ he chose, tiredly arising. The food and fatigue got to him, and he fell back down. _I'll just take my shift sitting, I suppose._

His eyelids weighed down on his eyes, and he let them close, too exhausted and full to argue. He went to a comfortable position. _Oh well, we'll be fine..._

"Rise and shine."

"Aw, daytime already?"

"Yes, Isaac. Come on, we need to walk out that deluxe dinner."

His head burned softly and, as he rose, it complained restlessly. "I think I have a fever, Maggy."

"How bad is it?" she fretted.

"It's fine, just troubling, not aching." _I hope she'll believe me. Even if not, she's going to lend me the heart._

She promptly did as he expected, and he squeezed it to his chest. For the first time, he was using it without having the high chance of dying, so he truly knew how it felt. It spread a feeling of tranquility through his veins and it was like he was tired, but not in a sleepy way. _Now I know why she's always happy. It's because she's always healthy._

The people around him woke up, too, and a few criticized their bellies for hurting. "It's just because you ate too much. You'll be okay after several hours," he reassured them. Maggy passed around her heart and after it had fully eased someone's stomach, they would hand it to the next victim of the ache.

He scanned the gang. _We're like a family,_ he noticed. _We don't just like each other, we're attached. If we really had to leave each other for some time, we would, but if someone died or left forever, we wouldn't accept it. They carried me around for days not even sure if I was alive. They didn't accept it._

"Everyone, let's move out," Isaac ordered, and a cluster formed as they went for another trek along the sacred corridor.

"Is your scar okay?" Samson requested. "I don't know what it's like to have one."

Isaac looked down at his chest and moved his finger slowly down it. "It hurts a little when I touch it, but for the most part, it's all right."

"It looks awesome," Samson complimented. "It's like a lightning bolt."

"Thanks."

He looked over to Eve, wondering how she was doing. She was speaking to Lazarus, who was still nervous, and trying to explain to him everything was okay. He strained his ears to hear what they were saying above the others.

"I was really shy once, like you. I wasn't a social person then, and I never thought I was a big help to the team. But now I'm talking all the time." She moved her hair out of her face, and waited for him to talk.

Finally Lazarus spoke. "I-I don't know what I c-can talk about," he stammered. "There isn't m-much _to_ t-talk about."

"Not that much, but there is, if you look at it. You could talk about this place, talk about yourself, your troubles, ask if they're troubled, so on and so forth. There's a lot you can say."

"I-I don't—I j-just...c-can't."

 _It's probably a disorder, or he's overly ignorant,_ Isaac inferred. _If it's laid out that blatantly in front of him and he still can't do it, it's one of the two. I'd expect it to be a disorder._

Eve sighed. "Well, have it your way, I guess." She turned around and joined in Cain's conversation as the bunch walked further and further into the hall.

Isaac didn't see Judas in the group, so he looked back and saw Judas having a vision, his eyes empty and blank. Half of his foot was on a card and he jerked his head at it, then his sight returned.

"Isaac, come over here," he called.

Isaac marched over. "Did the card stimulate your foresight?"

"Not only that, but it _was_ my foresight," he corrected, then, in a quiet voice, continued, "It showed me how to use them."

"Everyone halt," Isaac proposed. "Judas has something to tell you all."

Judas cleared his throat, then spoke clearly, "I've learned how to use the cards."

The announcement was met with both cheering and fright, which was easily understandable. But before anyone could state anything, Judas grabbed the card by both sides and rose it into the air above him. Before Isaac could stop him, the card broke into pieces as a single, forceful gale passed by it.

"The effects will activate in a few—"

His skin flashed, and just like that, he was gone.

* * *

 **Thanks to SamsonIsOP and DeskLampNinja for reviewing.**

 **Bye bye Judas, we love you. ;) Jk, we'll be in his perspective for the next chapter.**

 **I have SO many plans both irl and for this story you don't even know. It's almost annoying because we're doing a lot of stuff like moving and all that, and I can't get to put down my thoughts and I might forget. But I have big plans for this story and you guys are gonna get real excited. :D**

 **If I abruptly stop uploading, hopefully it's because I moved. I'm not sure how long I won't be uploading for, but I will be starting up again at some point. I just want to let you all know, because I don't know what we're doing with the computer and internet and all that stuff.**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	15. Hyperventilate

"Finally, someone came."

Judas opened his eyes. _I'm immediately regretting this..._

He saw a short, gray figure standing on the other side of the room. He had no eyes or mouth, they were just holes in his head, but his head was hollow. An assortment of objects lay in front of him, each marked with numbers in chalk. Most numbers were white, but some were red.

He zoomed his hand to his journal and put it in a position so that he couldn't see the gray model, then hastily scribbled his thoughts on it; in other words, he just scribbled.

"Oh, calm yourself down." When the figure spoke, it was very deep and his mouth was unmoving.

"Why should I?" Judas countered, still not looking at him.

"Because you don't even know who I am and I could help you."

He kept writing just as fast, but listened slightly more intently. "Go on."

"That's all. I never said I can, I said I could. As in might."

"Well, if you can do—"

"I can only help if you have money."

Judas stopped writing and looked at what he had brought to his paper. It really was words, but they overlaid each other and went up and down and everywhere.

"I don't have money."

"Then shoo. The only thing I know anything about is my shop, and if you have no money, you have no place here."

"Fine. I need to find my friends anyway." Judas stood and stalked away, his eyes drifting away from the shopkeeper.

"Would you like a consolation prize?" it offered.

"Depends on if I have to look at you for it."

"No, you don't." A small blur rolled across the floor with bright colors, and Judas kneeled and picked it up. It was a red cylinder, and it widened as it went down. At the bottom was a hole, and at the top a yellow string was attached to it. He put it on his head and it felt somewhat comfy, even though it was just paper.

"It's called a fez," the merchant stated.

"A fez." Judas repeated it. It sounded nice when it rolled off the tongue. He walked slowly out of the shop, and the storekeeper didn't argue.

 _So...what about my friends? I'm sure we're in the same place because I see the mosaic walls and the sacred windows and such._

He stared around at the images depicted by the art. Never before has he truly looked at the picture, just the colors. One picture showed a man about to stab a child, but an angel held his arms showed a man attempting murder on another slightly smaller man, beating him with a club. Another showed a different man whispering to another as someone was crucified meters away from looked at each portrait and scanned it heavily as he strolled along the corridor.

He shook his head. _I need to stay alert. I have to remember that I'm all alone._

 _And, of course, there isn't much that couldn't happen._

Suddenly he heard a _crack_ at his feet, and he twisted his head towards it, taking a wary step backward. It was a blue body, the 'eyes' X-shaped and, as he looked, they were only portrayals of eyes—it was truly just two cuts in the head, same going for the mouth.

He finally took his eyes off, and saw other bodies of the same kind, then his sight blurred and he fell asleep.

...At least that's what it felt like. However, instead, it was another vision. It was of each of the bodies fighting Judas and his 'friends', except Lazarus. Then he remembered something.

 _We've been here before. I'm on their trail._

His view came back and he looked far into the hall. He couldn't even see the end. _And that's because it's the long hallway we were progressing in before I got sent here._

Judas' eyes widened, then his feet subconsciously moved him ahead. As he controlled himself again, his pace quickened until he was sprinting across the hallway.

He pulled out his journal, and, as accurately as he could, began writing down a message on his front page as he ran.

 _Dear Isaac and others,_ he began, _only read this, and the rest of my journal, if you want, if I am dead. The first thing I wish to say is...well, good luck not dying like me. I'm sorry to say that most of my hope so far has been forced._

 _But then again, false hope is hope._

Judas opened his eyes. He was levitating, and the area he fell asleep in was not like he had last seen it. _This is a dream, then._

He was back at the cell he started this torture in. His body dropped unexpectedly and he fell on the ground, grunting as his body came within contact with it.

Then suddenly he lost all control to his body. Everything he did he did unwillingly. He couldn't even talk, he could only think.

 _So, am I going through all our progress so far?_

He waited for a while. Then his brain commanded him to open the bar, and he did so. Just as the bar hit the ground, everything came swiftly and obscurely.

 _We're fast forwarding._

After a minute or so, he was already in the place his real body was. The holy, god-like place.

He waited more, no longer trying to comprehend what was happening as everything sped past him.

Everything unusually became dark, and the only colorhe saw was an intense, purple fog. Still everything went accelerated, so he didn't try to do anything about it. But now he had more information. _So after we finish this place, we're going to an even darker area? Great. Nothing to be displeased with at all, surely._

The next change was that everything turned bright, but now there were rooms instead of one large, free space. The last change went by almost undetected;the only thing he saw was a red, glowing shape carved into the ground.

And a demon that he had heard of before.

 _Azazel, we're coming for you._

But time went back to normal speed, and as he looked around, he smelled the stench of blood and saw it, too. Everywhere. The people were unclear in his dream, so he couldn't tell who they were, but they were dying. Everyone was dying, even Azazel. But Azazel was nearly unaffected. He still flew with the same amount of power and laughed at their futile efforts that they now refused to try any more. Finally movement stopped; everyone had died.

But Azazel stood there. And he did nothing. Except Judas did see him smirk just before his dream disappeared.

He opened his eyes, but pain rushed through him as he tried to move. His perception went to his legs, the source of the pain, although didn't see them through thegiant rock crushing them.

 _Tell me this is another dream,_ he thought as he began to hyperventilate.

His eyes began to not close, but panic, and they turned in all directions, trying to see if anyone was there to help. Albeit he didn't see anyone, he did hear someone. It was a feminine voice, and it was also alarmed, but controlled and firm. "Go to sleep," it demanded fretfully. "Please, just let me handle this. Your wakefulness won't help either of us."

His mouth spouted sounds that were supposed to be words, but he finally stopped it. _Calm yourself, Judas, calm yourself,_ he soothed. _Her argument is valid. You're just going to screw her over if you stay awake._

He eventually got his eyelids to do their job, but he didn't try to go to sleep. _You're ready to die, right?_

He didn't try to sleep. He let himself stay awake, feel the pain, be prepared to never solve the mystery, never see the outside world again, never have a family—or _see_ his family—never fight again after he fights to die and fights to live at the same time. He prepared himself to die.

 _And I'm as prepared as I could be._

* * *

 **Thanks to SamsonIsOP for reviewing.**

 **If _this_ isn't a cliffhanger, I don't know what is. When Isaac got hit, that was at the front of your mind. But now, when Judas got crushed, there's a lot of things brought at once; trying to comprehend the dream, who the girl is (it could be Lilith, but honestly, it could be Eve or Maggy almost just as much), and him saying that he's ready to die, so it gets you ready to see him die. And then I end the story on that note. lel.**

 **When he looked over the mosaic art, it was biblical references to each of the characters, fyi.**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	16. Ticket to Heaven or Hell

"I am lost."

 _What?_

"I am lost."

Judas stood up. _This is a dream._

"Where are you?" he asked, unable to see anything.

"I am lost."

"Okay, well, can you see anything? I can—"

"No, I _am_ lost. The Lost."

 _So that's his name._ "Why are you here, then?"

"I'm your soul. Every one of you and your friends have us implanted in you. We kinda just accompany you while you're dying."

Judas sighed. _And I'm ready for it._ "Could you please show yourself?"

A ghost-like creature appeared a few feet in front of him. His head was a complete circle, and his body was simply a spiraled wisp. He had almost unnoticeably small nubs as hands, and no feet at all, but he floated in the air, so he didn't need any.

"So you've been in me the whole time?"

"Yes, but honestly, it's too dark to see anything. We're basically in your brain right now, but since it's a dream, it doesn't feel or look like it. It just looks like a blank field of darkness, right?"

"Yes, but couldn't I change it to something else? After all, it is _my_ dream."

"You don't have the energy, but that's why I'm here. Remember, in real life, you're actually dying. And, of course, once you die...well, you know how death works, obviously."

"It's hard to think about it. When you try to fathom it, your brain goes insane and you leave it alone. But if you try hard enough, it's really simple; you're just gone. You have no feelings or anything. It's like being in a coma forever, except your brain isn't half off, it's fully off."

The Lost began to fade away. "You're gonna wake up soon. Good luck." He went through the floor and left Judas by himself.

The agony slowly returned to him as he came back to reality. He was still crushed under the rock. _What the heck? Couldn't she at least break it away or something?_

However, as he looked around, every one of his friends were there. They had found him, but they were more interested in finding a plan to save him than being happy he was still alive.

Just for a second, they took a quick glance at him and smiled, then went back to talking. As he heard their voices, he also heard the girl with him originally. She had long, red, flowing hair that cascaded to the back of her neck. Her skin was unnaturally black and she had a white blindfold tightened onto her eyes. It had dried blood in some areas, but especially in the eye area. _A fate worse than Cain's. She's completely blind._ She also had little horns sticking up from her head through her hair.

Although she was the first to find him, she was the most scared. She was obviously not used to this; she had probably been alone the whole time she's been here. _At least she knows there are other people._ However, he got a chill down his spine and unwillingly a thought went straight to him: _I think there's no one else. This is all the people we're getting._

 _And I'll be the first to die. Which I'm perfectly okay with._

His eyes were half closed, his legs were completely numb, blood pooled around the boulder, and his heartbeat was half as it should be. So was his breathing.

After a long wait, everyone ran to Judas and started doing their own thing to help. He heard Samson lift the rock and throw it elsewhere; Cain was getting materials for his leg; Eve was applying it; Maggy gave him her heart, which he laid on like a pillow; and Lazarus and the girl sat at different places, the girl watching intently, Lazarus looking at the floor.

And Isaac did nothing, but he had the knife in his hand.

 _If I only get worse and everyone knows I can't be saved, he's gonna stab and kill me. I think that's more tragic, but it's for the better, too. At least, for them. They don't want to see me suffering, even though I'm not, because the area where it should be hurting the most is numb._

 _...I've been paralyzed. But does it even matter? I don't want to walk again anyway. Now is my time to perish. But they'll finally be able to read my journal._

 _I want them to know everything._

He gently rose his hand and pointed at his book, which was some feet away from him. "If...if I d-die...you...you and your family...can all read my book...together."

Isaac sniffled and knelt down so he was closer to Judas' face. "Don't say that," he sobbed. "We've been so far together, haven't we?"

"You...you almost d-died...and...it's l-looking this m-might n-not end...the same w-way..."

"You're just gonna go into a coma, like I did," he refused. "Why would you ever die?"

 _Because this place is literally torture. We were brought here for no reason, at least not as we know of, and we're gonna have to go through all this trouble, all this hurt, all this sadness, all this emotion, to get out. Death isn't an emotion, it's a function. And I'm activating it the best I can._

For the first time since he came to this place, he began to tear up. _And it's working._

He pointed again to his book, then to himself. Isaac grabbed it for him, then handed it to him, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.

Judas took the book, then, with the last of his energy, wrote everything.

Everything.

Everything he could think of, everything he has thought, everything he knows he would think, everything possible that he has and will think that is not already in his diary into his diary. They never accepted Isaac's death, and they had a right to, because he didn't die. But for Judas, they would have to accept it.

Because he already accepted it.

He put his face into Maggy's plush heart, now past tears. He had wished this onto himself. Once he knew he was hurt, he was ready for everything to end. Maybe this is more torture to them than him, but personally he felt it was just as much for him. They were all dying, but not outside, inside. It didn't matter if he died now or later, he would die, he knew it all along. And he wouldn't be the only one. In fact, everyone had died. But then again, it wasn't on the outside, it was on the inside.

He wrote one last thing, shut his book, then shut himself from everything.

 _There's only one last thing to do. My special last words. Maybe they'll think I'm doing it because it's fancy, maybe because it's dramatic, maybe anything. I don't care. Under the small chance they do understand, it would be worth it._

"I've had...a g-great family. Y-you...you guys d-don't...you don't need to f-find...your r-real ones. Y-you...already...have..."

Everything was silent. They expected him to go on. _Live for just one last word._

"...yourselves."

He forced his eyes closed and his heartbeat, breathing, everything stopped.

* * *

"Judas?"

He woke up and looked around. He was dreaming, but it felt so incredibly vivid.

He saw The Lost again, but this time he was completely white, not see-through or pale. He was almost shining. He levitated higher than usual, and as Judas kept looking at him, he was slowly going higher and higher.

"You're dead now. Once I leave your head, your dream stops and you die. And there's no stopping it; they've done everything. Say whatever you want now."

He tried to speak, but nothing came out. He moved his mouth in the correct formation and made his vocal cords make the noises, but still, nothing happened.

"Oh, I forgot. You can't talk. Well, this is kinda... _teasing,_ I guess, but you were ready for death. Now it's just the intermission to your infinite coma you talked about."

A tear rolled off Judas' eye, but although he was sad that he died, he saw it coming and he let it come. In fact, he pushed down the gas pedal harder. He had passed the speed limit already, now he just waited for his ticket to heaven or hell.

"Goodbye, Judas. You've had a good run." When The Lost said this, to Judas it sounded almost pre-recorded, then, just before The Lost rose over the ceiling, he stated, "We were all made to say that before someone died."

Everything went black.

* * *

 **RIP Judas. ;(**

 **Did you cry? That's almost what I was going for there. xD**

 **Although this chapter just looks plain sad, it also has a lot of information. The Lost was made by someone/something and put into them to keep them company while they're dying. Why? Who? Questions will be answered. :)**

 **I told you characters would die. Maybe you didn't believe me, maybe you did, but now you have to because it happened. :)**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	17. Belial

Isaac kept trying to keep his tears back as he watched Judas slowly and painfully dying. He didn't want to watch, but he had to; if everyone agreed he wouldn't live, he would stab him. But Isaac knew he was already gone. His heartbeat and breathing had stopped, and they had nothing to revive him with.

"Judas, come on, please..." he begged. "You can still live. Right, everyone?"

Eve shook her head. "He's dead, Isaac. Keep your common senses."

He made a quivering sigh, then put his eyes on his knees. Around him, people put all the medical equipment away sadly. _We've gotten so far together, at least as far as I know. And it's just gonna end like this? I don't want to be the last one. Once everyone else has died, I need to push through and let nothing kill me._

 _But, of course, we don't actually know whether or not everyone is actually gonna die. And I really hope not._

He reached his hand out and took Judas' journal. He inspected the cover for a while. _Now I_ _ **really**_ _hope he isn't my father._

He began reading.

* * *

Hello, welcome to Judas' journal. Of course, if it's me reading this, then it's my journal. No one else should be reading this.

1st entry: Dear Isaac and friends,

Only read this, and the rest of my journal, if you want, if I am dead. The first thing I wish to say is...well, good luck not dying like me. I'm sorry to say that most of my hope so far has been forced.

But then again, false hope is hope.

\- Judas

2nd entry: So...I'm in this cell by myself and it doesn't seem like anyone is awake. But I found this journal and a pen, so I'm just gonna write my thoughts. ...I don't have any in particular. I don't remember anything. I have amnesia. Well, how about...how do we escape? Yes, good job, Judas. Well, first of all, is there a way to exit at all? Oh, yes there is. There's a little hole in one of the bars, it's almost like a keyhole. Now how do I find a key? Hmm...wait, how flexible is this cord? Maybe I could bend it...yes, I think that will do. I'm picking the lock now. Hey, it worked. Now time to see where the heck I am.

It's kind of like a mix between a mansion and a cave. It has little statues on the walls and the floor is smooth...ish, but the walls and ceilings aren't. It's not too bad. But of course, I do want to go back home.

After that, there are a few scribbles, then it goes to the next entry.

3rd entry: Phew, I finally found you. I had stepped on a trap and it blew cutting winds at me. Now I have scratches on my back, and they sting. Ow. But I met a few friends. Their names are Isaac, who seems to be the leader and has short, dark brown hair and brown shorts and t-shirt, Maggy, who has long blonde curling hair, and a long dress and skirt, and Cain, who has full black clothing and a poorly made eyepatch. I tried to ask him what happened to make him get his patch, but for the first time since I've seen him, and according to Isaac since the first time _he_ had seen him since they'd been together the whole time, Cain was frowning, and he told me he didn't want to talk about it. Hmph. I kind of get it, but honestly it can't be that bad. It's not as if a monster came and smashed him everywhere, tearing...that's violent. Good thoughts, Judas, good thoughts.

4th entry: So what should I name this book? Hmm, I don't know, truthfully. I'm thinking of some fantasy name or something...Book of...I'll think about it. I'll write my thoughts onto here.

Book of Judas

Judas' Diary

Judas' Journal

Sacred Journal

Book of Sacredness

Book of Me

Book of Value

Book of Belial

I've decided to go with Book of Belial. I don't know why. It seems like an angry, intense name, so it doesn't fit the journal, but...I think it kind of fits me. Should I rename myself Belial? I don't think so. I'll think about it.

5th entry: Yes, you're now my little Book of Belial! Yay! I'll just call you Belial, though. We've been through some weird times, but they haven't been bad times, and no one has really gotten hurt. We'll have to move out of this place soon, and I know Isaac knows. It's disappointing, but it's for the better. What to write about, what...to...write...about...I don't know. My hand is getting tired, though. I'll see you tomorrow, Belial.

6th entry: Hi, Belial. Today actually feels like a normal day. I decided to make improvements on the base. I'll make the blueprint on you. Is that okay? Okay.

Almost filling the rest of the page was a blueprint. It wasn't actually blue, but that doesn't matter. It was the design for their base.

They're working on the base right now. I'd better help. Bye, Belial.

The base has been finished. Sadly, my pen is already a quarter out of ink. I'll have to be more preservative, I want to write in you as long as I can. I'd say the base looks really neat. Everyone else seems to like it too.

7th entry: Hello, Belial. Just like yesterday, today is a normal day, but it's more relaxing. We're not building anything, we're just doing normal business. It—

More scribbles.

You wouldn't just believe what happened, Belial. Isaac heard footsteps, so he ran out and he returned with this girl named Eve. She had a giant scratch on her side and for a second we thought she had died, but instead she turned into a giant monster and wrecked our home. Isaac used his die and saved us, but...he seemed a bit insane. I don't have a good feeling about this. Well, I'll see you later, Belial. We have to rebuild.

8th entry: Isaac has been redeeming his sanity to us. He's even scolding himself, Annoyingly, he didn't do a lot of work because of it. Oh well, it's either our home or our friend. I've never called anyone my friend before. Wow. Well, I'll be sticking with these people for a while, so I'll get used to it. I wonder what we'll be doing tomorrow. Good night, Belial.

9th entry: Today, Belial, we're gonna leave home. Finally, I was starting to dislike staying here forever. It is pretty comfy, at least more than other places, but it's the same thing everyday. We weren't making progress. They're worried too much about survival and not enough about leaving. I'm definitely the other way around. But I still want to survive. We can't leave if we can't survive, because then there's no way and nowhere to leave. We're gonna go to sleep now. Goodnight, Belial.

10th entry: Just as we left home, we heard a noise. Turns out it was a survivor. His name is Samson, and he's really tough. People are chattering with him and...wha...what's going on...?

A few more scribbles.

So I just had...some kind of vision. It was of a giant wall crashing down, separating me from the rest of the group. I ran as fast as I could to make sure I ended on the other side, but now Isaac and Maggy are trapped.

Again, you won't just believe what happened. Samson is ultra tough. He broke giant holes in the wall and he became even stronger, then he just walked through it. So it appears Isaac and Maggy are safe with us, and we learned that Samson is valuable.

11th entry: Isaac told me about a dream he had. After he told me, I had another vision. It was of the demon he had explained to me, and he was flying. He flew onto a small pedestal that said Azazel and stood there. I assumed that's what his name was. Then it zoomed to another time, and it showed him flying us and tossing us into our little cells. I'm not sure how we ended up without getting hurt when he threw us. Oh well, now we know who we're after, and I know whose skull I'm going to crush. If Azazel has one, of course. He isn't even a human. Probably.

12th entry: The floor cracked below Isaac and he fell. It looked like he fell to his death, but it was actually an illusion. He teleported back up here and he said this guy named Eden gave him a bag of stuff that were 'destined to be with their owners'. Unfortunately I got the one item that looks the most useless—a tongue. Of course, no one else would have taken it, so whatever. He also got a necklace, and he held it up and it teleported all of us to this cathedral-like or church-like place. It's blue and there's mosaic art everywhere. Light comes from chandeliers attached to the top of the ceiling. I hope this is the last place we go, because it's the best place.

13th entry: We knew that Isaac and Maggy had something with each other in the first place, but it's gotten stronger. I'm almost worried. I try not to think about it; it's really awkward when I do. On anoth—

Scribbles.

We got ambushed. Not much time to explain, Belial. Isaac is badly hurt. There were these blue clone guys that looked like us, but kind of dead. Isaac used a little technique that earned us the win, but earned him a stab in the chest. I'll explain more later. Goodbye.

14th entry: I can explain more now. Everyone assumes Isaac is dead, but me and Eve know he's still alive, he's just asleep. His heartbeat and breathing are still active, and they're only slightly lower than usual. We're going to have to pay large attention to him, though. Also, since Isaac is asleep for who-knows-how-long, they say they're going to vote on a new leader, but they're 'too sad to do it today'. Disappointing. I'm truly worried about Isaac, though. He can't die. No one can.

 _And_ _yet,_ _you_ _did,_ Isaac thought sadly.

15th entry: It seems Isaac might actually be in a coma, not just a sleep. He's still alive, however. There isn't much to report. Now, my pen only has a third of its ink left, so I'm only going to talk about anything interesting that happens. As of now, it doesn't seem like it.

16th entry: It's been a few days since Isaac fell into his coma. I really hope it's short term, because if not, we're not gonna see him awake for a long time, maybe even forever. We've been having to feed him while he's asleep, and it's tough because we have little things that could be used on him without him choking. Water is easy, as long as we only give him a little at once.

17th entry: Isaac finally woke up. It's been over a week, and nothing interesting has happened. Maybe Isaac has been causing all this. Whenever he's awake something goes after him, and then after us. I strongly doubt it's all him, though. I can't believe it, and I won't believe it. I'm glad Isaac is awake, though.

18th entry: We found one more person. His name is Lazarus, and I don't think he's a naturally shy person, I think it's some kind of disorder. It's way too large to be natural. But seriously, Lazarus is a giant help at the moment. His base is the definition of perfection and he had a _lot_ of food. We had a feast, and for the first time, I'm full. No more rationing, I hope. We're not staying at his base for long though, which makes sense. We'll be leaving tomorrow. I hope nothing bad happens.

19th entry: Well I made a bad mistake. I had another vision, it taught me how to use the cards. What it didn't tell me is it would take me from my friends and to this dumb shop thing, whatever it is. I don't even have money, and he keeps bugging about it. I'm gonna leave. ...He just tossed me this weird hat thing. I wore it and I actually like it a bit. He says it's a 'consolation prize', whatever that means. Now I need to find my friends.

I found a bunch of blue bodies...what the heck. Wait a second, I remember this. This is the battlefield where Isaac got stabbed. Now I just have to go along this ridiculously long hall. At least we went very slowly during Isaac's coma. If we went at the same pace, they would be weeks away and...I might never have been able to see them again.

20th entry: I'm dying, Belial...I need to write everything down that I ever know before I die. I know I can't be saved.

You're gonna go through 2 other areas. After this place, you're gonna go to a dark, purple-fogged, rocky place. It's really hard to see there. Then, you'll go to a giant wooden building. The ceiling is only about 10 feet above you, though, and there are different rooms. There is a giant golden door somewhere in there, and once you finally get it, you're going against Azazel. I don't know what happens after.

After that, the writing became more and more faded.

My pen is running out...Belial, Isaac will keep you and he'll love you. I love you too, Belial. Treat them nicely. It's all for the memories. My pen is almost all the way out of ink, so they can't really write anything.

Isaac had to strongly focus his eyes to understand the words after that.

The family is great, and although I'll never see my true family, my fake, not-biological family is good enough. I know it's metaphorical, I'm just saying. Good luck, everyone. You can do it.

The words were now only indents on the paper, barely even ink.

It's gonna be happy, sad, angry, fearful, worrying, gory, a lot of stuff, but you can make it. I know it. And Belial, you can do it, too. We can all do it. I will be there.

The end. Goodbye, Belial. Goodbye, family.

\- Judas

Isaac noticed he had been talking aloud the whole time, and everyone heard it as they put everything away. Now everyone had finished, and they had gathered around to listen. Some eyes were stained with tears, but they were all smiling.

"He'll be with us, Isaac," Maggy murmured tranquilly, slowly shutting the book.

 _He'll be with us._ Isaac smiled and wiped a tear from his eye. _He'll be with us in the form of Belial._

He hugged Belial.

* * *

 **Thanks to SamsonIsOP and DeskLampNinja for reviewing.**

 **I almost think this would make someone cry more than the last chapter. Think about it; you're reading back on all of your friends memories just after he dies, and it ends the chapter with "He'll be with us". Holy heck. ;)**

 **This is also the longest chapter, which makes sense. Yay!**

 **After this, we'll be going back to the actual story and stop talking about Judas. Consistency reasons. :)**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	18. Reverse Reverse Psychology

"What do we do with Judas?" Cain questioned.

"We could just leave him here," Isaac suggested unsurely.

"It's not like we can bury him," Eve reasoned.

"Shouldn't we at least cover him in something?" Samson requested.

"We could, but I'm not sure if we should," Maggy debated.

Lilith crawled towards the group. "If we're going to be technical, we should take him away from us. Animals might be here."

"As long as we're not near him, we don't need to take him away. While we took him away, we would be near him," Isaac analyzed.

Everyone agreed on leaving Judas, and they picked their stuff and left. "So we'll be going a long way across this hall again," Isaac sighed.

"It'll only take a day or two to get back where we were," Maggy assured.

"And a day or two is an injury or two," he argued.

"Not if we're cautious."

"Like when I got stabbed in the chest? I was cautious, just not quick."

"Well then, let's be cautious _and_ quick."

"Fair enough," Isaac muttered. "And you know I'm not trying to be rude, right? I'm just in a bad mood."

"Of course," Maggy sympathized, grabbing his hand softly.

He smiled, and they resumed their journey.

* * *

A couple of days later, they came back to where they were when Judas took the card.

"We're here finally," Samson panted. "We've been going really fast and yet it didn't seem to come any quicker."

"Let's make sure that's not another mechanic of the maze," Eve stated.

They walked a lot more, chatting quietly but joyfully. Ever since Judas died, the journey back hasn't brought anything to them, but they began to run out of food and water and have started rationing.

Whenever Isaac got bored, he would look at Belial and talk to it as if it was real. _One day I truly hope that it does become real. But would that ever happen?_

 _Maybe._

He scanned all his friends. "Belial, look at all them being civilized and friendly," he whispered to the inanimate book.

Eve gently pushed Lilith forward with her hand as she talked to her, being her guide. Cain and Samson spoke and laughed heartily. Lazarus shied away from everyone. Maggy stood beside him, watching everyone else.

"Don't you find Lazarus adorable?" Lilith spoke to Eve. "I don't know what he looks like, obviously, but his personality, always so unnecessarily timid."

"I don't really have too strong feelings for the people here," Eve admitted. "I mean, everyone is my friend, and I enjoy being their friend, but metaphorical family is maybe a few steps ahead of me."

"Well, why not be a part of the family?" Lilith suggested.

"It's not organized," she explained. "Families have the parents, brothers, sisters, nephews, grandmas, and so on. But this family doesn't actually have that, which means it can't be organized the way a family should. So I kind of do feel like I'm in the family, I just don't feel like it _is_ a family."

Lilith nodded. "I could make a comeback for that, but it would be weak, so it isn't worth it. Oh well."

"Lazarus is kinda cute, but not in a loving way, just by itself," Maggy remarked to Isaac.

"Yeah," he agreed.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yes, sorry. I'm just a bit zoned out."

"Well, try not to be. We need you to lead us and to keep us safe."

"Again, I'm sorry. It's a lot of responsibility, taking care of 6 other people." He exhaled. "I know we're going to get out of here, I just don't know when; that's really annoying. I have to take care of these people until we get there, but if we're going to succeed, it might as well just fast forward to us after we won."

"Then maybe we don't succeed, because we're not fast forwarding," she advised. "But will you accept that?"

"Definitely not...oh, I see what you're doing. Thanks for the moral support."

She grinned. "What now, leader?"

"...We keep going forward. Why?"

She blushed, embarrassed. "I don't know. I said it at the wrong time, but if I didn't say it now, it wouldn't have worked."

"Hey guys, look over there," Cain suddenly exclaimed, pointing at one of the walls. Isaac and everyone else, excluding Lilith of course, turned, and there was a black door with bars on the front. A fake skull with swords crossed through it was put at the top, and the bars rose as they watched it.

"What now, leader?" Maggy whispered fretfully yet determinedly.

"Stay here," he demanded to everyone, then walked closer to the door and looked inside. Inside laid three red and gray chests, with almost the same layout as the place before the necklace took them here. However, it was brightened by the outside yet a lot rockier.

He stood for a few seconds, unmoving, considering what might happen if he enters. _It may very well be a trap, but also may be reverse psychology. Or reverse reverse psychology. Hmm..._

"All of you stay near the door," he ordered. "I'll go in and check out what's going on in there."

He tiptoed inside and pulled out his knife, prepared for anything to come and kill him. He stared down one chest, then took another look around the room, unsure if he wanted to open the chests in case they were a trap.

"It's okay, Isaac," Eve whispered. "We're right here."

 _I may very well be separated from all of you,_ he answered in his head, but not wanting to say it aloud. He again gazed uncertainly at the chest, then put his hands out and, with his knife firmly in his hand, opened it.

The bars on the door fell loudly back down, and they stepped away from the door. _I knew it! And now what happens to me? ...Or what happens to them?_

"Isaac, pay attention!" Maggy yelled, pointing behind him. Two dark red spiders jumped from the chest and scrambled towards him, and he flung his knife at one of them, hitting it easily and it releasing small amounts of blood into the ground. He crushed the other one with his foot.

He panted. _Is this all?_ he thought hopefully, although as he twisted his head, it wasn't over. A giant creature began to materialize on the other side of the room, the colors and life lazily coming through it.

He quickly took the other chest and flung it open, wishing strongly it would help him in some way. Two black bombs with faces jumped out of it, the fuse running short. He grabbed both and threw them at the emerging monster, exploding and hurting it badly. But he still had one chest left to open, and one monster to face.

He opened the last chest hurriedly. It contained two spiders again, although this time they were blue, and they ran towards the beast, exploding lightly on contact and hurting it more.

The freak was fully formed. It was a large tan blob with a distorted mouth and large eyes. It bled from where the bombs and spiders hit it, but it didn't seem worried about its injuries. It was more worried about its food as it drooled hungrily.

Instinctively Isaac jogged to his knife and tugged harshly at it, trying to take it out of the floor. The blob now bounced towards him, its mouth wide open and ready to eat.

For reasons even he himself couldn't understand, Isaac pulled out Belial and faced the monster. He rose Judas' book high into the air, and it began to glow more and more...as Isaac drifted from reality more and more.

His vision covered with a red haze as he yanked the knife from the floor, and he went unconscious.

At least, that's what it seemed like to him.

* * *

 **Thanks to SamsonIsOP and DeskLampNinja for reviewing.**

 **In this chapter, we learned! Yay!**

 **We learned a bit about Eve, the boss trap room, and Belial. But nothing much happened to change the story strongly. Oh well, we've had a lot of that lately, so this chapter is kinda like a break.**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	19. Baby Blue

"We're making progress."

A little demon-like person with black wings and red eyes looked at a partially crunched-up paper. Near the bottom, a quarter of the page had words, but the rest of the page was blank.

"Not enough progress," a mysterious figure from the dark rumbled. All Azazel had seen of his lord was his long, pointed, gray horns. Azazel knew he would reveal himself in time.

"It's progress nonetheless," he countered.

"We got lucky with Judas's death unlocking part of the prophecy. We needed to kill at least 2 people per section to unlock the prophecy, but we've only killed one, being in the second section. The first brought no good news to us." The figure's shadow moved a little closer into the darkness.

"I'm sorry, 'my lord,'" he apologized sarcastically, turning to face his master even though he couldn't see him, "but they're diligent. We've barely gotten to them so far, and even the Blue Baby project didn't—"

The ground shook violently for a second. **"Don't ever speak of that!"** his master demanded. "I told you that already. It should have worked, but Isaac somehow survived, and I've been disappointed in that project ever since."

Azazel regained his footing and sighed with annoyance. "I'm surprised the boulder even worked. For some reason Judas seemed eager to die as soon as he got crushed. I understand he didn't want the pain of this place any more, but he barely even thought about death beforehand."

"He was easy prey after the boulder hit," his master explained. "If Isaac had wanted to die, he would have died. The fake injections of The Lost are doing very well for distracting, though."

"I still wonder what kind of powers the true Lost has," Azazel pondered. "That's the only thing the prophecy didn't tell us."

"I would be worrying, but we've gotten so far that I don't care much," the horned creature replied. "I just want to see him in all his glory. Once we've created him, we can do whatever we want with him."

"Once _you've_ created him," Azazel corrected. "They warned that I was one that must be killed in order to summon him. We've created the plan, don't you remember?"

"Of course I do." The earth shook slightly as he moved around. "Now I have to keep making my project. Keep watch on them."

Azazel flew to the other side of the earth and grabbed a giant crystal ball. He got as comfortable as he could, knowing he would be in the same position for a long time.

"Good luck," he scoffed as he began watching the orb.

* * *

Isaac looked around with dreary eyes, barely able to see anything through his tiredness, and stretched his limbs. After blinking and rubbing his eyes, he finally took a look around.

 _Where am I?_ he wondered. Moonlight leaked through a closed, rectangular window and illuminated the room with a soothing blue. He rolled off the soft object he had been laying on to find it was a baby blue sheet on a large mattress. It functioned like a bed, but no frames or anything were on it.

The walls were painted the same color as the sheet, and as Isaac observed his surroundings more, almost everything was baby blue, besides a few cabinets and drawers that were wood. The floor was a cozy carpet, and for a heartbeat he felt like laying down and going back to sleep, but he knew that it was necessary to know more.

He walked out through the door, colored the same as most of the room, to find a hallway leading to a few other doors, but on one side was the living room he had seen a few times and his mind automatically dragged his body to it.

As soon as he had entered, he turned towards the chair his dad once sat to see someone else there.

Azazel.

He grinned devilishly, his eyes glowing with rage, and flung himself at Isaac, pinning him to the ground.

"I have to stop you every time you have a dream," he shouted angrily. "This is just another one of those times. I can't let you remember more. I just can't."

Isaac's dream faded away.

* * *

 **So much thanks to Requiem-105 for the new cover image. Thanks to him no one has to ever look at the other cover image I made myself, in other words the terrible one. :)**

 **I'm sorry that the chapter is so short, but I promise the following ones will be at least a bit longer. And I promise the story will become a lot better. :D**

 **I'm glad you all waited so patiently. Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	20. Little Friend

"Maggy, honestly, he's fine. Don't you see his breathing and feel his heartbeat?"

"We need to do something! This isn't natural!"

"And what else here _is_ natural? Please, go on. Answer."

Silence. "Exactly. From what Lazarus took hours to tell us, although he's losing blood, he's replenishing it just as fast."

"But then is it ever going to stop!?"

"We're not sure, but we think so. It all happened after he used Belial, so maybe if he uses it again, he'll be fine."

Isaac woke up, yet he showed no signs. He heard Maggy and Eve in particular, and the rest were further away. _She worries so much. I taught her to be brave, then she taught me. Do I have to reteach her?_

He felt warm blood all over him, and as he tried to open his eyes, he had to immediately shut them again. He also chose to keep his mouth closed. _Today is not the day I get my first taste of blood._

To show that he was awake, Isaac shook his hand and smiled. However, as he moved, he was suddenly overwhelmed with extreme tiredness and his hand slumped back down.

"Isaac, are you awake?" It was Eve.

He nodded, then raised his hand slightly and pointed at his face, trying to show them he wanted the blood off. After a few seconds, he felt someone put something like yarn on his face and softly patting it down. They rubbed it across his face a little, then finally they took it off and Isaac opened his eyes. He saw Maggy and Eve; Maggy was highly frightened, but Eve was calm.

Eve gestured for Maggy to leave, and she gladly yet anxiously walked away.

"She was freaked out a bit and she hasn't cooled down yet," she explained. "Anyway, we were all worried about you nonetheless. There's blood everywhere. Are you okay?"

"Yes, but all I feel is tiredness, so I guess I wouldn't be able to tell." He laughed a bit.

"You should go back to sleep. We'll be right here."

Without another word, his eyes closed and he started to fall to sleep.

* * *

Eve sighed. When Isaac was unavailable, she was chosen to be leader because of the personality Isaac had given to her. She was the opposite of what she was before, which means she has good leadership now.

Ahead of the team, there were only two directions to go; left, which was a long way but ended in a dead end, or right, which was the way they were supposed to go. Eve decided she would check out the dead end real quick.

After warning everyone of her hopefully temporary leave, she took out her razor blade and walked down the hall. She was cautious at first, but as she looked around, the environment took her guard down easily.

Colorful mosaic art were illustrated on the wall, each with a meaning. One was someone leaving a giant garden, another was someone with his hair cut trying to pull his body out of chains, another simply of a seemingly normal person.

As she turned her head to the other side, she saw more; a dead body being shone with light by someone else, a large pack of demons with a silhouette of someone in the background, then another dead body, except completely blue, inside a chest.

She twisted her head around, hearing a scratching noise, but saw nothing. A chill came down her spine and she felt uncomfortable as she progressed. The scratching continued, but she tried her hardest to ignore it. _There's nothing there. I'm hearing things._

She kept advancing, yet gingerly, and as she noticed a strange green goo attached to the wall, she considered going back, not sure if this was worth it.

"But you can't."

She stood still, the voice unfamiliar and, worst of all...behind her.

"Oh, don't be afraid. It's just your little friend, _Azazel._ "

 _I'm dead._

* * *

 **Again, I'm sorry for the short chapter. I just didn't know where to proceed from this point without something happening that I don't want to happen, like someone noticing Eve is in trouble. :(**

 **I _sincerely_ with _all my heart_ promise that the chapter after the next will have more than 2000 words, and the next one will have over 1000. The next chapter might even come out tomorrow, who knows. :D**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **\- SF**


	21. Fateful Encounter

"You do remember me, right?"

Eve didn't respond, trying not to move. She felt like one movement would kill her.

"Don't tell me you don't remember me. I'm the whole reason you're here...or, at least, partially."

She tried not to over-think it. Now was not the time.

"At least reply. I'm sure you're not mute."

She turned towards him slowly, keeping her hand near her blade. "Why don't you just kill me?"

"That would be too easy. I could use you in so much better ways, you don't even know," Azazel explained. "Killing you would affect the team greatly, but I could affect it greater. I'm afraid that, no matter how I use you, I would be the only one ending happy."

"I won't make it easy for you," she warned. "This is not where my journey stops."

"And I would agree," Azazel retorted. "But I'm not going to appear for nothing."

"Then what are you going to do?" she questioned angrily, grabbing her blade. "If you're going to do something, do it now."

Azazel flew up and straightened his arms as claws erupted from his fingers. A red fluid rolled off his lip as he answered, "I'll just do whatever this leads to. I'll wait for your first move."

She grasped the dead bird pin from her hair and enclosed it in her hand. "You're too arrogant for your own good."

"I have my reasons," he countered. "You wouldn't know, of course."

She instinctively tossed the pin at him. It hit him lightly and fell to the ground.

He laughed. "What did you think would happen? Magic?"

"Yes."

"Don't worry, you'll see some throughout this fight."

She quivered. "We never mentioned that..."

"My vote counts as two," he announced. "So it wouldn't matter anyway."

"You don't know what you're doing," she argued.

"I'm fighting."

He landed on the ground and charged at her claws-first and closed his mouth. She held her razor blade in front of herself as he slashed at her. Azazel's claw got stuck in the middle of the blade and she tugged it away, pulling his claw off and spurting blood. She noticed his mouth was completely full of something, and, as they kept slashing at each other, he opened his mouth and a red laser erupted from it, burning her hands and the blade.

She shook her hands harshly as pain coursed through her, but didn't stop fighting. She threw the blade at him and it went through his chest, and she kicked it all the way through him as more blood spewed out. He flailed in agony, slicing her a few times, and flew up so she couldn't get him, but she had a plan. She ran to her pin and threw it between Azazel and the wall, and it stabbed through his foot and into the wall, making him unable to move. He pulled the pin out of the wall and his foot, and the recoil sent him flying into a chandelier. He came crashing down, and she stepped on his hand and grabbed his injured foot, trying to put as much pressure on both as possible.

Azazel's mouth was full again, so she jumped over him as he shot the laser, accidently burning the chandelier away from the ceiling. She kept a distance from him as it crushed him, making a very loud bang, and then everything was silent.

 _He must be dead._

He crawled out from under the chandelier, leaving a trail of blood, and collapsed. Without notice, the dead bird pin morphed into a real bird, flying onto Azazel and pecking his head. He stabbed through it with a claw, and as he tossed it across the hall, it transformed back into a pin.

Eve gripped her razor blade and stomped over to Azazel, preparing to finish him off, but he flew away again, and as she threw it, not wanting to give up at that, he dodged it. "It's over. Let's just consider it a tie."

"I would rather kill you. A tie isn't worth it." She punched the ground in anger, forgetting her burn, but the pain went through again and she sighed.

"It's better than a loss, isn't it?" He began to fade away, disappearing in thin air.

She looked at herself and all her cuts and burns and decided to leave it at that, turning to the way she came here.

 _What a fateful encounter,_ she thought.

* * *

Isaac looked into the hall where Eve found Azazel, wanting to go there just to see if he could end him.

"Isaac, are you _still_ worrying about Azazel? He won't be there this time."

"I know, I know, Maggy. I just can't stop thinking about it."

Eve had came back and told them all about what happened as everyone helped patch her up. They were running out of medical supplies and they wanted to ration it out, but Isaac decided it was fine for them to use it on her. They would find more eventually.

As Eve fought with Azazel, Isaac was cured of the bleeding effects of Belial. Everyone was ready to move out now, but Eve was unsure, suffering from something along the lines of shock. They finally assured her that it was fine to go, but she was still frightened. They told her not to look at herself, because, whenever she did, she would get self-conscious because of how torn up she was.

They moved out, and talking resumed. People had started to get quiet again; although the problem before was that they felt like they had nothing to say, they now felt like they've said everything.

Isaac flipped through the pages of Belial, still sad about Judas's death. _I wouldn't want anyone else to die._ He landed on the last page and read it over. _No matter what, they'll always be with me._

Suddenly, the lights began to dim. "It's not night already, is it?" Cain asked. "It hasn't been that long."

"No, it shouldn't be night," Isaac agreed, putting away Belial. "But unless we want to travel without light, we should stay here anyway."

A glow erupted from the back of the group, and they turned in surprise, but all it was was Lazarus with a torch. "...T-torch," he explained, trying to hand it to the nearest person, Lilith.

She felt around herself, finally grasping the torch, and told Lazarus, "I can't see, remember? Don't rely on me to hold your stuff."

He nodded, and Samson sighed. "She can't see you nod, buddy."

Lazarus looked at the ground as the group progressed.

* * *

 **I'm sorry it's been a while since I last updated the story. I'm still getting back into it. :/**

 **However, this chapter has reached the goal of being over 1000 words as I hoped. Now, I just must make the next chapters over 2000. And the next one will be easy. :3**

 **Thanks for reading. I'm not giving up yet. This story will be finished. :D**

 **\- SF**


	22. Bluntly

The travel was normal. Normal enough, at least. The group just walked across the hallway, relaxed with nothing in their minds. Eve was the opposite; cautiouswith thoughts scrambling everywhere.

Isaac kept reading Belial. The sadness remained, but curiosity filled any other plausible emotions.

 _We've been in this place for so long and we're making so much progress, but at the same time we're making no progress because we can't get to the next area without that Eden person. And we don't know when he'll show up. Of course, he was under the floor the last time we saw him, so he's not going to be the one to show up, we are._

 _Eventually._

He slipped Belial back, deciding to keep it off his mind. It was much more important that they find food and water; everyone kept a high mentality, but, without food or water, for how much longer?

The lights stayed out, and the only thing that kept them going is the torch. Otherwise, they would be laying down, but not sleeping. No one was tired yet at all. In fact, they were all pumped.

As he walked, he looked down at himself—even though he had had a bath, he was still dirty. When he was in his coma, he got dragged around and the floor, and who knows how dirty that is...that explains it.

His socks were black with dirt, his shorts were discoloring, his shirt was ripped plenty of times...he got a rush of dismay the more he thought about it.

Suddenly he bumped his head and he jumped at the abrupt stop.

He turned left and right, seeing that they would have to turn left...however, it was oddly extremely thin and only one person could cross at a time, and for how long would they have to stay like that?

 _Also, how would Lilith handle it? The torch's light wouldn't go far either._

He thought strongly about it, even sitting down and clearing his mind of everything else. Chatter interrupted his thoughts and it grew across his friends.

"I'm trying to think. Shush." He spoke loud enough for everyone to hear, and they all quieted down.

"Lazarus is gone," Eve said bluntly.

He turned towards her disbelievingly. He glanced at everyone else and they nodded slowly, one at a time.

He sighed and shook his head. "Maggy, Samson, and Eve, please go find him. You've the good eyes on the team."

The girls took off quickly; Samson staggered, but ran to catch up.

"Cain and Lilith, what do you think we should do?"

"How about _not_ go across that thin hallway?" Cain suggested. "We don't know how long it is, and who knows what it could do to us. Just think about it; extremely thin, precarious hallway. No other way in sight; only option is to go in. We go in. Walls crush us. The end."

"So far, the place has tried to pick us off," Lilith began to argue. "I'm not sure they would simply kill half the team, even if given the chance."

"Exactly. It would be unexpected, quick, and weakening."

Cain and Lilith kept debating over the situation, and Isaac would have joined it, but he was zoning out. His sight blurred and his mind clouded. A few thoughts found their way even in the midst of the fog in his head, but he couldn't tell what they were anyway.

He heard a yawn, just barely realizing it to be his own, before he closed his eyes and fell asleep on the spot.

* * *

"Where do you think he would be?"

The team discussed where Lazarus might be. They weren't coming up with a conclusion.

"Perhaps he would be in the dead end, wanting to seek vengeance against Azazel?" Samson suggested.

"He isn't that kind of person, Samson," Maggy argued. "Give me one reason he would do that."

"...Because Azazel has been torturing us the whole time?" he answered.

"Again, he isn't that kind of person. He's barely even fighting material. He has rags and his clothes as armor, and a broken...whatever it is as a weapon."

Eve stared at the two blankly. She almost felt non-existent, but it was her own fault. She wasn't taking part in anything, and, since everyone was polite, they wouldn't force her to do anything. But she wanted them to. She needed them to.

But she didn't force them to, because she was polite.

* * *

Lazarus walked down the hall, frightful yet not wanting to turn back. Blood was spattered everywhere, along with the strange, green goo that Eve had spoken about.

 _I need to redeem myself...I can't turn back...I need to keep going...I can't let this go on..._

He was afraid of many things. He was afraid of being near people, of speaking, of being spoken about, of being spoken to, of darkness, of bugs, of spiders, of blood, and so many other things. But he wasn't scared enough to make him stop going.

He saw a large, broken chandelier on the ground. From the ceiling, a few ripped wires poked out, sparking electricity.

He kept on going around the chandelier, but he slipped on the blood and fell on his back. Although he was surrounded with warm blood, he shivered in fear. He was covered in blood, and he felt like he was dying, yet he felt no pain.

He slowly crawled to the end of the hall, not wanting to go back still. The floor creaked, the walls felt unsteady, the hole in the ceiling sparked with electricity...

He ran back.

With all his force, he pushed his feet against the ground, hopping and gaining momentum, then just ran. He couldn't redeem himself. He just wouldn't try any more. He knew there was no way he could ever do anything right.

He noticed the green goo creep across the wall, sliding across it faster than he ran. Something trapped his feet and he fell again, biting his lip as he made a silent scream. It dragged him into the floor, and his vision corrupted as he went down. There wasn't even a hole; he just faded into the hole.

 _I must deserve this._

"Don't say that about yourself."

A calming, smooth voice spoke to Lazarus. The goo dissolved in thin air and Lazarus dropped into a grassy field covered in light.

"You're perfect."

Lazarus shielded his eyes from the painful light. "I-I...can't s-s-see..."

The light level fell, and Lazarus could see just fine now. He felt the grass at his feet, the soft air gliding through him, and he tried to breathe normally, but none of this was normal to him.

He noticed that, where the light used to be, there was a human. He turned to face it and brought out his broken object, quivering at the thought of fighting.

"Don't act so aggressive. I'm Eden."

 _Eden._

"Yes. Don't you remember? Isaac met me." Eden levitated towards him, and Lazarus let his guard down, but he was still scared.

"Seriously, just calm down." Eden emit a yellow light and Lazarus felt his object drop from his hand.

Eden sat down, and Lazarus went down with him, not knowing what to do and simply going with what Eden was doing.

"Calm your mind. You don't need to redeem yourself. Azazel is not around here, and his wits and strength won't let you win anyway. You may be weak, but you have helped the team greatly. Had you not existed, they most likely would have starved and dehydrated, maybe even dying. You saved them."

Eden's blindingly white hair waved in the wind, but Lazarus's stuck to his hair. Even his hair was scared. It would stick to his scalp, begging him to do something about the wind.

"Now, they're worried about you. You need to go back up and assure them that you're fine."

"I...I...can't...talk w-w...well..."

He sighed. "You can't stick to the topic well, either."

"...I'm...awkward."

"Yes, you are." Eden's eyes began to glow.

"When death approaches, it may be hit or miss for you. You have been blessed with yourself and with another. Constant blood rolls across your side, or feeling is deprived from you. You earn a second chance, a second chance, and a possible second chance. There is no third chance; death will pierce your armor, and then you, but he may not be strong enough."

His eyes went back to normal, and a bag floated to Lazarus. He held it, but his muscles strained with the weight and he dropped it.

"Now, go see your friends."

His eyes glowed again and Lazarus and the bag rose, teleporting them away.

* * *

 **I was disappointed in the bottom half of the chapter, so if you don't like it, I can see why.**

 **Finally, away from the Cathedral! One death, and however many others to go.**

 **I'm doing a reading project, so expect the next chapters to either come faster or much better quality.**

 **I'm SO INCREDIBLY SORRY that this chapter isn't more than 2000. However, the quality would have been terrible, or it would have came much later, so I hope you guys understand.**

 **\- SF**


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